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Access 2007

Add a Field

Add a new field to an existing table:

  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button Button image, and then click Open.
  2. In Open dialog box, select and open the database.
  3. In the Navigation Pane, double-click one of the available tables to open it.
  4. Type your data in the cell below the Add New Field column header.

sample table

Add a new field to a new table:

  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button Button image, and then click Open.
  2. In Open dialog box, select and open the database.
  3. On the Create tab, in the Tables group, click Table.

    Access Ribbon Image

    Access inserts a new table in the database and opens it in Datasheet view.

  4. Type your data in the cell below the Add New Field column header.

sample table

When you enter data in the new column, Access 2007 uses the information you type to recognize the appropriate data type for the field. For example, if you type a date in the column, such as 1/1/2006, Access 2007 sees the information you entered, recognizes it as a date, and sets the data type for the field to Date/Time. If Access doesn't have enough information from what you enter to guess the data type, the data type is set to Text.

The following table shows how automatic data type detection works in Datasheet view.


If you type: Office Access 2007 creates a field with a data type of:
If you type: Access create a field type of:
John Text
http://www.contoso.com

You can use any valid Internet protocol prefix. For example, http://, https://, and mailto: are valid prefixes.

 Hyperlink
50000 Number, Long Integer
50,000 Number, Long Integer
50,000.99 Number, Double
50000.389 Number, Double
12/31/2006

The date and time formats recognized are those of your user locale.

 Date/Time
December 31, 2006 Date/Time
10:50:23 Date/Time
10:50 am Date/Time
17:50 Date/Time
$12.50

The currency symbol recognized is that of your user locale.

 Currency
21.75 Number, Double
123.00% Number, Double
3.46E+03 Number, Double

In addition to determining the data type, Access 2007 may set the Format property, depending on what you enter. For example, if you type 10:50 am, Access sets the data type Date/Time and the Format property to Medium Time.

If you want to explicitly set the data type and format for a field, overriding the choice that Access 2007 makes, you can do so by using the commands in the Data Type & Formatting group on the Home tab.

Set the data type

  1. On the Datasheet tab, in the Data Type & Formatting group, click the arrow in the drop-down list next to Data Type, and then select a data type.

    Access Ribbon Image

  2. Click the data type you want.

Set the format

  1. On the Datasheet tab, in the Data Type & Formatting group, click the arrow in the drop-down list next to Format, and then select a format.

    Access Ribbon Image

  2. Click the format you want.

When you add a field by typing information into the cell below the Add New Field header, Access 2007 automatically assigns a name to the field. These names start with Field1 for the first field, Field2 for the second field, and so on. It is a good practice to use more descriptive field names. You can rename the field by right-clicking its header, and then clicking Rename Column on the shortcut menu.

Field names can consist of up to 64 characters (letters or numbers), including spaces. You should try to give fields descriptive names so that you can easily identify them when you view or edit records. For example, you might use field names such as Last Name, Address, and Home Phone.