Creating a Simple Query in Microsoft Access 2000

Have you ever wanted to combine information from multiple tables in your database in an efficient manner? Microsoft Access offers a powerful query function with an easy-to-learn interface that makes it a snap to extract precisely the information you need from your database. In this tutorial, we'll explore the creation of a simple query.

Create an Access Query

In this example, we will use Access 2000 and the Northwind sample database included on the installation CD-ROM. If you're using an earlier version of Access, you may find that some of the menu choices and wizard screens are slightly different. However, the same basic principles apply to all versions of Access (as well as most database systems).

Our goal in this tutorial is to create a query listing the names of all of our company's products, current inventory levels, and the name and phone number of each product's supplier.

1. Open your database. If you haven't already installed the Northwind sample database, ​these instructions will assist you. Otherwise, go to the File tab, select Open, and locate the Northwind database on your computer.​​

2. Select the queries tab to bring up a listing of the existing queries that Microsoft included in the sample database, along with two options to create new queries.

3. Double-click Create query by using wizard. The query wizard simplifies the creation of new queries. We'll use it in this tutorial to introduce the concept of query creation. In later tutorials, we'll examine the Design view, which facilitates the creation of more sophisticated queries.

4. Choose the name of the table you want to use in the query from the Tables/Queries drop-down list.

5. Double-click each field you wish to include in the query. Click the Add All button (>>) to add all of the fields at once. Select Next.

6. Choose Detail or Summary to select the type of query you want to create. Select Summary Options to select how you wish to summarize the information. Select Next to continue.

7. Enter a title for your query and select Finish. The query results will appear.