Attendance Report that Shows additional dates as they are added

[Dale]

Access 2003

I am trying to figure out how to develop a report that will display
students in 1st column, dates across the top, and "P" or "A" for the
data. I have a crosstab that displays what I want. I can create a
report that shows the data from the crosstab that looks like what I
want, However, these are "static controls" so when I add a class then
I would need to edit the report.

I need the report to show additional classes (dates) as they are added
to the database.

The final report should display simalar to an Excel spreadsheet.

Ex:
1/21 1/22 1/23
John Doe P A P
Jane Doe P P A

In the "Ex" if I added data for "1/24" then I need it to show in the
report without having to edit the report.

I hope I have explained what I am trying to accomplish here, it's late
and I'm braindead tonight.

Thanks
Dale

[Allen Browne]

Dale, there is probably more to this question than you realise.

The short answer is that you need to store the data relationally,
so the attendance table will have fields like this:
StudentID relates to a record in your table of students
ClassID relates to a record in your table of classes.
ClassDate the date of the class
AttendCodeID a value such as Present, Absent, Late, ...
You then use a crosstab query to get the results you are after.

But there's a myriad of issues to solve here as well. At the end of the
road, the column headings keep changing, so it's not easy to design the
report where the field names keep changing. Here's some approaches to deal
with that:
http://www.access.hookom.net/Samples.htm
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-67.html#ColHead

Prior to that, you need a good relational structure, where:
- one subject is taught in many classes (streams, or different semesters
over the years)
- a class may meet on multiple dates (throughout the semester)
- students enrol in a class (not a subject)
- your interface might populate the attendance records automatically (so you
just fill in the attend code field.)

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"Dale" <mt****@yadtel. netwrote in message
news:54******** *************** ***********@y5g 2000hsf.googleg roups.com...

Access 2003

I am trying to figure out how to develop a report that will display
students in 1st column, dates across the top, and "P" or "A" for the
data. I have a crosstab that displays what I want. I can create a
report that shows the data from the crosstab that looks like what I
want, However, these are "static controls" so when I add a class then
I would need to edit the report.

I need the report to show additional classes (dates) as they are added
to the database.

The final report should display simalar to an Excel spreadsheet.

Ex:
1/21 1/22 1/23
John Doe P A P
Jane Doe P P A

In the "Ex" if I added data for "1/24" then I need it to show in the
report without having to edit the report.

I hope I have explained what I am trying to accomplish here, it's late
and I'm braindead tonight.

Thanks
Dale