Here's the situation: I have about 1,000 records that I want to put into Microsoft Access. Each record is either a substance or an effect and the fields in each record will vary slightly (just think Wikipedia, no two records have the same fields)--some records will have 4 fields, some 8, and so on.

What do you suggest would be the best way to design my database? I would love to use multiple tables, but I don't know if that would make sense.

Any help for this database newbie would be greatly appreciated!

HOW are the substances and the effects related?

i.e. Can one substance have many effects? Can a substance have no effects?

Can one effect be tied to 0, 1, or many substances?

(Is this a Pharmaceutical database?)

For now, assume the two tables weren't related, would it make sense to have 2 unrelated tables (1 for substances, 1 for effects) just so it's easier to enter in data because substances and effects don't share any of the same fields?

Use NotePad to edit two different text files. You can have whatever variations you need within the text, and for only 1000 entries a simple search should find everything that you need.

For grossly unstructured data, use a program that doesn't need or want structure!

-PatP