How to Create Relationship in MS Access

Quick summary

This tutorial shows how to create a relationship between tables in Microsoft Access using the built-in Relationships tool. You will open the Relationships window, add the relevant tables, link them via a primary key, and enforce referential integrity to maintain data consistency.

Steps

1. Open the database file where you want to create relationships between tables.
2. Go to the Database Tools tab in the ribbon.
3. Click on Relationships.
4. Select the tables you want to relate.
5. Click Add Selected Tables.
6. Drag the primary key field from the parent table and drop it onto the corresponding field in the child table.
7. Verify the fields in the Edit Relationships dialog box are correct.
8. Select Enforce Referential Integrity to prevent invalid entries in the child table.
9. Click Create to save the relationship.
10. Click Save to save all relationships.