12.8: Field Names and Data Types
Learning Objectives
- Discuss field name requirements
- Discuss types of data used in Microsoft Access
Field Names
A field name should be descriptive enough to identify the purpose of the field, without being overly long to prevent excessive typing. Enter the field name by placing the pointer in the first row of the Table Design window under the Field Name column. In order to ensure a valid field name, a field name:
- Cannot exceed 64 characters,
- Cannot include periods (.), exclamation points (!), accent grave (`), or brackets ([]),
- Cannot include spaces,
- Cannot include low-order ASCII characters,
- Cannot start with a blank space.
Practice Question
Data Types
The data type must be consistent with the data to be stored in the field. The “text” type is the most commonly used data type, including numbers that will not be added like social security or street address numbers. Here is a partial list of Access data types:
| Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Short text | Alphanumeric characters |
| Long text | Alphanumeric characters |
| Number | Numeric values |
| Large Number | Numeric values |
| Date/Time | Date and time data |
| Currency | Monetary data |
| AutoNumber | Automatic number increments |
| Yes/No | Logical values: Yes/No, True/False, etc. |
| OLE Objects | Pictures, graphs, sound, video |
| Hyperlink | Line to an Internet resource |
| Attachment | External files |
| Calculated | Stores calculations based on other fields |
| Lookup Wizard | Displays data from another table |
Practice Question
Contributors and Attributions
- Field Names. Authored by : Robert Danielson. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution