Question

Relationship question

Asked by: OmegaProgrammer

We've got 4 primary tables: Branches, Employees, lenders, and loans.
There's a many to many relationship between branches and employees,
and a many to many relationship between branches and lenders. (branches have to be approved with lenders)

So we need a way to relate Branches, employees, and lenders to loans without creating a circular relationship.

Any ideas?

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Asked On
2003-06-10 at 13:21:18ID20643579
Topic

Microsoft Access Database

Participating Experts
4
Points
250
Comments
15

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Answers

 

by: thebiggillsterPosted on 2003-06-10 at 13:31:01ID: 8694256

Use a saved query and make the joins in the QBE window. Access treats saved queries exactly the same as a table

 

by: thebiggillsterPosted on 2003-06-10 at 13:32:31ID: 8694273

You won't be able to cascade deletes or enforce referential integrity though.

 

by: OmegaProgrammerPosted on 2003-06-10 at 13:33:56ID: 8694280

And we're upgrading to SQL Server 2000 in a month or so.   Sorry I forgot to mention that.

 

by: heer2351Posted on 2003-06-10 at 13:37:01ID: 8694306

To create a many to many relationship you have to create an intermediate "linking" table. This table holds the primary keys of the two other tables. Since you have two many to many relations you need two of these tables:

tblEmployees        tblEmpBranch                 tblBranches                 tblBranchLender     tblLenders              tblLoans
Emp_ID------------<Emp_ID                                                             Lender_ID>----------Lender_ID----------<Loan_ID
                             Branch_ID>----------------Branch_ID-------------<Branch_ID

 

by: thebiggillsterPosted on 2003-06-10 at 13:38:19ID: 8694320

Paste the SQL from the saved query into the recordsource property of the form

 

by: OmegaProgrammerPosted on 2003-06-10 at 13:41:24ID: 8694340

Yeah, I have the two intermediate tables, but that means we wont be able to determine which branches or employees generated which loans.

 

by: heer2351Posted on 2003-06-10 at 14:21:17ID: 8694622

If you want to link an Employee/Branch combination to a loan you have to add the loan_ID to the tblEmpBranch.

 

by: fredtheredPosted on 2003-06-10 at 14:49:01ID: 8694773

Many Lenders many loans,

As heer2351, but:

tblEmployees        tblEmpBranch                 tblBranches                 tblBranchLender     tblLenders              tblLoans
Emp_ID------------<Emp_ID                                                             Lender_ID>----------Lender_ID----------<Loan_ID
                            Branch_ID>----------------Branch_ID-------------<Branch_ID>------------LoanID


Regards.

 

by: fredtheredPosted on 2003-06-10 at 14:57:26ID: 8694833

Or should I say:

tblEmployees      tblEmpBranch         tblBranches        tblBranchLender     tblLenders    tblLenderLoan      tblLoans
Emp_ID-----------<Emp_ID                                              Lender_ID>--------Lender_ID----<Lender_ID                                        
                            Branch_ID>---------Branch_ID--------<Branch_ID>                                  Loan_ID>--------Loan_ID

                                                                                                       
Regards

 

by: heer2351Posted on 2003-06-10 at 15:03:00ID: 8694871

Fred, thanks for the correction that was what I meant.

So with loan_id added to the tblEmpBranch

tblEmployees      tblEmpBranch         tblBranches        tblBranchLender     tblLenders    tblLenderLoan      tblLoans
Emp_ID-----------<Emp_ID                                              Lender_ID>--------Lender_ID----<Lender_ID                                        
                           Branch_ID>---------Branch_ID--------<Branch_ID>                                  Loan_ID>--------Loan_ID
                           Loan_ID>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

 

by: OmegaProgrammerPosted on 2003-06-10 at 15:03:55ID: 8694876

There doesn't need to be a many to many relationship between loans and lenders.  What we need is the ability to find what branch, employee, and lender is associated with a loan.  But at the same time find out what employee is in what branch and what branch is approved with what lender.

 

by: OmegaProgrammerPosted on 2003-06-10 at 15:18:25ID: 8694947

Doesn't that make a circular relationship?

 

by: heer2351Posted on 2003-06-10 at 15:25:06ID: 8694974

There is a one to many relationship between loans and lenders, a loan could be assigned to multiple lenders. Like my mortgage ;)

But if that is not a requirement and a loan can only have one employee, branch and lender you should add this information as foreign keys to the loans table.

tblLoans
loan_ID
lender_ID
emp_ID
branch_ID

remove the loan_ID from the tblLenderLoan

 

by: OmegaProgrammerPosted on 2003-06-10 at 16:09:39ID: 8695177

Maybe I'm asking the wrong question.  Let me try this.  Is it wrong to have a circular relationship?

 

by: lluddenPosted on 2003-06-10 at 16:17:45ID: 8695214

Can one employee be associated with multiple branches?  If so, then you need to have

tblBranch        tblEmployessAtBranch             tblEmployees
BranchID<----------->BranchID      
                                 EmployeeID<-------------->EmployeeID

tblLenders      tblLendersAtBranch       tblBranch
LenderID<---->LenderID
                        BranchID<---------------->BranchID

tblLenders      tblLendersPerLoan       tblLoans
LenderID<----->LenderID
                         LoanID<----------------->LoandID


You need to either store the BranchID and Employee ID in the loan table, or make up a seperate table that has

tblLoanLinks
EmployeeID
BranchID
LoanID


Then you could take any one piece of information and solve for the other 3, so you can see all the loans made by an employee at any branch or any lender, or all the lenders for a branch regardless of the employee.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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