Linking tables in MS Access

[mikeghelp]

I am trying to link 5 tables. Do I need a field in each of the table that is the same?

[lwwhite]

By "link," I assume you mean that you want a field in Table B to look up values in Table A. For example, Table B is a list of employees. Table A is a list of statuses. For each employee in Table B, you want to be able to select the appropriate status from a list that in turn comes from Table A. To create such a scenario, you will need to create a relationship between the tables. To do so, you will need to have a field in Table B that can "receive" the values from Table A. You will then need to "link" that field to the corresponding field in Table A. In this example, your status field in Table B would "receive" the values from the status_id field in Table A.

Table A
status_id

Table B
emp_id
status

I find the easiest way to create this simple relationship is, when creating the table in the Table Designer, select Lookup Wizard... as the Data Type for the status field (in this example) and let the built-in Access Wizard do the work for you. You can later fine-tune the selection with a custom query if you need to.

[ADezii]

I am trying to link 5 tables. Do I need a field in each of the table that is the same?

You need Fields in each of the Tables to be Linked that are of the same Data Type, the Names of these Fields are irrelevant. The only exception to this rule is that an AutoNumber Field can be Linked to a Long Integer and this really isn't an exception.

[MMcCarthy]

I am trying to link 5 tables. Do I need a field in each of the table that is the same?

Have a look at this tutorial.

Normalisation and Table structures