accdb, and databases created in earlier Access formats have the file extension. Databases created in the Access 2007 format (which is also used by Access, 2016, Access 2013 and Access 2010) have the file extension. Unless it has been specifically designed to use data or code from another source, an Access database stores its tables in a single file, along with other objects, such as forms, reports, macros, and modules. For example, an inventory tracking system that uses three tables is not three databases, but one database that contains three tables. One database can contain more than one table. Once these problems start to appear, it's a good idea to transfer the data to a database created by a database management system (DBMS), such as Access.Ī computerized database is a container of objects. The data becomes hard to understand in list form, and there are limited ways of searching or pulling subsets of data out for review. As the list grows bigger, redundancies and inconsistencies begin to appear in the data.

Many databases start as a list in a word-processing program or spreadsheet.

Databases can store information about people, products, orders, or anything else. In this articleĪ database is a tool for collecting and organizing information.

The terminology is geared toward Microsoft Access databases, but the concepts apply to all database products. This article provides a brief overview of databases - what they are, why you might want to use one, and what the different parts of a database do.

Microsoft access database 2013