No, this is not fool proof because there are still many errors that can still occur, for example even though the field “FirstName” is compulsory errors like putting a wrong name can still occur. The evidence for this is below.
Default Values
This check makes sure that the person filling in the record makes the least mistakes as possible. This also makes the record much easier for them if they live in a local area. For example the default value for “Post Code” would be “PO” because all people in the local area would have a post code beginning with “PO”. Evidence for the default value of “Post Code” is shown below.
I have applied this check to the following: District, Telephone No., Post Code, and Mobile No. I thought it was appropriate to apply these check to these fields because people living in the area would have the information starting with this, For example the telephone number would start with “02392” because this is the area number for Portsmouth.
This check would help to prevent typing errors because it will give them the minimum of what they need to fill in, in order to make the field complete and correct some fields are complete for you for example the “District” field already has “Hampshire” filled in.
Here is evidence of what errors this helps to prevent, this also shows how the “District” field already has “Hampshire” filled into the field.
No, This is still not fool proof, there are still many errors which can still occur such as if they delete it and input wrong data.
Check Fields
This checks each field for a unique number for example: if you want it so a specific field can only use from numbers 1-100 you would use this check to make this possible. Here is evidence to show that this check works.
I applied this check to the following fields: “Patient ID” and set it from 1 to 99. I also applied this check to “Dentist ID” and “Appointment No.” For “Dentist ID” I set it from 100 to 200, and for “Appointment No.” I set it from 1000 to 9999. the reason I thought it was appropriate to add this check to theses fields is because for “Appointment No.” I put a big range because there won’t be a limit of how many appointments the dental practice can have but there will always be a limit of how many dentists and how many patients there will be.
This check will help to prevent errors. For example, if the person filling the data in was for a patient record and they added a wrong value in that was used in another table such as Dentist or Appointment. It would cause a big problem with the system because it would see there is 2 primary keys that is being used. But with this check it makes it easier because if you fill in a wrong value then it will cause a error and wont let you continue until you fix this problem. Here is more evidence that it wont let you get continue until you fix it.
To be able to use this check the type of formula I used was “>0 AND <100” this means that the unique value should be over 0 but under 100.
This is fool proof because there are no errors that I could find with this check. Even if you try to use a duplicate value in another record it will not let you continue. Here is evidence of this. But there could be a potential error. If you have another table that has a primary key but does not have this check and if you use the value “1” it may cause errors. But in my database all of my primary key fields have this check applied.
Value List
With this check you can add a drop down list which is inserted into a field with options to pick from. Here is evidence of what it does.
I have applied this check to the Title field in the patient table. I have applied this check to the Patient and Dentist link field in appointment table. For the title field I thought it was appropriate to insert a custom list to use with the Name titles used above, I thought it was much easier for the person inputting the data with a drop down list. For the patient and dentist link fields I thought it was appropriate to add this check because whenever a record is added into a patient table, inside the appointment table the patient link field will have the unique No. to get all of the details from that record and it will be added into the patient link value list automatically same with the dentist link field. The evidence for the dentist and patient link is here.
These are the fields from the appointment table when you insert the patient link number from the value list the other details are filled in automatically.
This is the part of the record from the patient table this has to be filled out manually but the data is used in other parts to make the database easier to
use.
The errors this would help to prevent are that it would make it much easier for the person to pick the Name Title just in-case there is a spelling error. It would also help the person making the appointment because they can gather the patient/dentist information into the appointment record without inputting all the information again. The evidence is given in images above. This is not fool proof there is still some errors that can occur because you do not have to use the value list it is just there to help you can still make spelling errors in the field.
