Re: Survey Design

Just when I was so proud of my ability to design a good looking form:(

However, I really want to thank you for taking time to starighten me
out on this issue!!

You certainly saved me a lot of time and frustration and I can assure
you that I'll NEVER forget this lesson.

Much appreciated :)

Thanks!

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:34:03 -0400, "Roger Carlson"
<RogerCarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It is an Incredibly Bad Idea to design your database based on a form. Ease
of entry or not, you are setting your self up for huge problems with
reporting your data if you store it in a non-normalized fashion. And then
what's the use of ease of entry if you can't get the data back out to report
it?

You would not believe the horrible databases I've seen which were created by
slavishly copying the form. Here's and example:
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/download3.asp?SampleName=ReallyBadDatabase.mdb.
My suggestion is to use a normalized data model (ala AtYourSurvey) and
simply train your data entry people.

If you absolutely MUST have a data entry form that looks like the survey,
create one that enters the data into a non-normalized table which you then
transform (via code) into a normalized structure. The specifics of how you
do that will depend on the details of your database, but I have a simplified
example here that might get you started:
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/download3.asp?SampleName=NormalizeDenormalize.mdb
.