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Designing Database Tables

First, there will be two tables added to your database: Persons and Phones. These are exactly the same tables as described in chapter Database and Spreadsheet. A layout for Persons can be found in section Data integrity and validity in that chapter.

  1. Select Table from the toolbar. You can also use Create object: table in the context menu of the Tables item in the Project Navigator.

  2. The Table Designer's window will appear. Looking at the top of designer's window you will notice that Kexi proposed you a generic name like Table1 for the new table. The table design is not saved yet so you will be able to assign more proper name later. Moreover, because of the same reason, the table name is not yet visible in the Project Navigator.

The Table Designer window

Table Designer window consists of following columns:

  • - Additional Information about the field.

  • Field Caption - caption of the field which will be displayed during data entering.

  • Data Type - a combo box containing a list of data types, allowing to set a main rule for entered data for a given field. For example, when an integer number data type is set for a field, a database user will not able to enter letter characters into this field.

  • Comments - you can enter here any information useful for understanding what the given field is provided for. This additional text will be saved within the table design and only visible in design mode.

In the Table designer window, every row corresponds to a single table field. You can recognize you are in design mode because the Design button is toggled on within the Table designer window toolbar.

Designing the Persons table

In the first row click on the cell in the Field Caption column and enter Name as field caption. Filling the Field Caption field automatically fills the Name field as seen in the Property Editor pane.

Notes about field names and captions

  • Every table field must have a name and a caption, these cannot be empty.

  • Field name is a word used by the database, usually not visible for users of the database application. The name may not contain special (national) characters (like ±, ¶, Ü) or space characters. The name must only contain roman letters, numbers and underscore sign “_”. Use the latter instead of spaces or dashes.

  • Field names must be started with a letter or underscore sign “_”, never with a number.

  • It does not matter whether you are using small or capital letters. For Kexi the field name Persons is the same as persons.

  • Field caption, on the other hand, allows you to enter any letters and special characters. It will be displayed for users of the database application.

In a similar way, enter the following fields into the table design:

  • surname

  • street

  • house_number

  • city

All the above fields, except house_number, are of type text. Change house_number field's type to integer number. To do this, click on a cell in the Data Type column, house_number row and then click on drop down list's button or press F4. The list of data types will appear. You can also use the arrow keys Up and Down to select another type. Select the Integer Number type.

From now on, the house_number field only accepts numbers.

Persons table design is ready. Click the Data button on the toolbar to finish designing and switch to Data View for the table. This allows you to enter data into the table.

As the design is not yet saved in the database, the Save Object As dialog window appears. You need to specify the name for the new table.

Kexi offers a generic name like Table1. To change the name, enter Persons into the Caption field and press the Enter key or click the OK button. The Caption field will be used to display the table to database end-users, e.g. as a form. Unlike the name, the caption can contain any characters including spaces and special characters.

Note that filling the Caption field automatically fills the Name field. For your convenience the rule for using only letters, numbers and the “_” character is kept. You can alter the contents of the Name field if you want to.

  1. You are asked about an agreement for automatic adding of primary key to the table. Click Add primary key button to continue.

  2. The Persons table has been created and opened in Data View. Its name appears in the Project Navigator pane.

  3. Create the Phones table, in a similar way as Persons table.

  4. Create a person field of type Integer number and phone of type Text. Do not use a number type here because phone numbers can have many different forms and prefixes.

  5. Click the Data button on the toolbar and enter Phones caption for the table. As for your previous table, allow Kexi to automatically create a primary key.