I have a business database. I have it in access. At this point it is a flat database. It has business name, address, phone and Category.

I created a few tables.
MainCat: Let say a value in this would be Retail.
SubCats: Let say a value in this would be Stores.
Cat: Let say a value in this would be Pet Stores.

They are all linked by lookup fields.

I have a few questions:
1. My category field in my database might look like this:
Joes Pet Shop
12 Some ST
Somepalce, UT, 12345
555-555-1212
Pet Store, Animal Feed Store, Pet Supplies, Stores

So basically I was thinking of converting the Alpha cats to the numeric equivalent in the tables to do a lookup instead of storing all the values in the table.

Can this be done and how?

Thanks in advance for your help

I am not sure what you are asking here. What is the relationship between the tables currently? If one store is capable of having more than one type, then you will want a junction table between your category tables and your business table. Currently this is not flat.

tblCategory
CatID
Category

tblBusiness
BusinessID
BName
BAddress1
BAddress2
BCity
...

tblCat_Bus
CatBusID
BusinessID - FK
CategoryID - FK
...

This will allow you to have n number of associations between your business and category structure. Then you reporting can show the categories associated with each business as needed.

Is this what you were talking about?

mmcdonal

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