Hi!

I need to write a paper(about 10 pages) about problems with database initiation.(when you try to initiate the database) I cannot find any literature on the web. Please Help.

is this aimed at a specific RDBMS?

No it is ment databases in general.

Could you define "database initiation" in your own words? The term is alien to me. You'll have to to do better than "when you initiate the database." Are you sure "initiate" is the right word?

Could it be "initialization"?

Yeah.. sorry i dont know what is the apropriate word in english. i ment when you are finished with the database and you try to make it work (with the bussiness and the user) - what problems appear.

I'm no expert on this, but here is a list I've taken from another topic that touch upon areas that can fail. I don't have examples off hand.

• Goal - Differentiation
• People - Education, Training, Experience
• Data - Definition, Manipulation, Query
• Process - Function, Procedure, Recursion
• Network - Processing, Storage, Communication
• Schedule - Start, End, Duration, Dependencies

We can discuss these points.

thanks. do you think i could also use these reasons (from data warehouse) on http://www.mimno.com/avoiding-mistakes.html ?

I don't see why not.

Frupy:

I would research the Microsoft Access database forum. You may find some useful information there.

Microsoft Access was designed as a friendly, powerful, customizable, desktop program that would allow both novice as well as expert database designers to build solutions quickly, and at a reasonable cost.

Microsoft Access fills a large niche market between Microsoft Excel (the number-crunching spreadsheet program) and the larger more complex databases (such as SQL Server or Oracle).

If I were you, I would find someone with Microsoft Access (part of the Microsoft Office suite - which includes Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel) and I would have them show you how they build a database (or two) from scratch.

If you're allowed to just play with Access by yourself, use one of the wizards to walk you through a database from scratch - it will make more sense if you do some hands on stuff versus textbook only research.

BTW if you are already a database guru, my apologizes here for assuming you are just getting your feet wet. (I've been doing databases for 20 years and still am waiting for someone to give me the guru award, LOL).

A database, simply put, is a collection of information, stored in rows (or records) in a table (like manila folders in a file cabinet). Everything to know about databases from that point on could fill books but mainly the trick to databases (and where they fail) has to do with the ways people try to enter the data, edit/manipulate the data, or retrieve the data (in reports) so it makes sense to others looking at the information.

A database could be a simple Christmas card list used to generate printer labels for Christmas cards or it could be a complex series of sales commission reports read by a CEO to determine which salesperson in the company will earn the performance bonus.

A couple of more points to get you started...

I would go to the library and find a couple of database developer books and then turn to the chapter on troubleshooting and read through the common problems.

Come to think of it, better yet, if you can get hold of a copy of Microsoft Access on someone's computer, press the F1 help key and see what you can find in the help section.

Here's a snippet of help when I searched for "troubleshoot select queries":

"The chapter heading was: The query doesn't retrieve the records I want.

What best describes the problem?
The query retrieves too many records.
The query retrieves too few records.
The query retrieves the wrong records."

(BTW: These were links that took you to other help topics and explanations.)

Finally, you can go to http://www.google.com/microsoft and search for almost anything database related. Just use the keywords Access 2000 or Microsoft Access or Access Database and see what you get. You may want to narrow your search by some other keyword like query or report or error or fail.

Good luck. Hope you get an A+.

Joe G

Can someone please try to explain to me what is the difference between data warehouse and database (and what is the connection). Thanks

A data warehouse is a type of database.

Databases could be divided into two camps:

1. Transactional which are highly normalized for data manipulation.
2. Data warehouse which are highly denormalized for data queries.

So if you want to capture data you use transactional databases and if you want to produce reports you use a data warehouse.

Transactional database schemas are specific in structure to the business rule that create them. Data warehouses have two dominant structures. The star schema which has fact tables as the hub with dimension tables only connected to the hub and the snowflake schema which slightly normalizes the dimension tables.