Tutorial

Table Of Contents
Lesson 11
Making databases relational
Relational databases let you easily view related data and streamline data entry. You can enter data
once, then view and use that data in related tables or files.
In this lesson, you will:
1 see how relational databases work
1 define a relationship
1 display data from one related record
1 display a list of related records
The sample file in this lesson uses two tables:
1 the Customers table containing records for individual Favorite Bakery customers.
1 the Companies table containing records for companies where these customers are employed.
Each company has many employees (customers of Favorite Bakery).
Display a related record in a file
Define a relationship to another table
1. Open Sample Copy.fmp12.
The file contains the tables, but not the relational structure. You will build the structure now.
2. Choose File menu > Manage > Database.
3. Click the Relationships tab.
You see the relationships graph. The relationships graph shows all the tables in the current file.
When you work with tables in the relationships graph, you are using them to organize your view
into your data. Each table occurrence in the relationships graph represents a separate view into
your data. When you create a relationship between two tables, you make the data stored in
either table accessible to the other table, according to the match fields and the criteria you
establish for the relationship.
4. In the Customers table, click the Company field and drag a line to the Company field in the
Companies table.
The Company field is the match field.