Heirarchal Database Design

I realized last week that part of a database I've been working on truly
contained hierarchal data (parent - child relationships) as opposed to
relational data. I've read about self-joins and specialized queries, but
that doesn't seem to be the "best" way to do it.

I really have enjoyed learning about the possibilities of storing relational
data in Access, but I frequently work with data that is hierarchal. Is there
a consumer program like Access that is designed to handle hierarchal data?
(By consumer program, I mean something that doesn't require a dedicated DB
manager and team or a visit from IBM.) Particularly, it would be nice to
have a product that can go from a table view to a tree view with no coding.

Thanks for your ideas,
Matthew Pfluger

Access is a toolbox that is well suited for heirarchal data and to build what
you are looking for.

I think that what you are asking for is to have it built already. In that
case I would google for Family Tree software, there are lots of good ones.
I think that there have also been posts of templates etc. of doing this in
Access.

From what I've seen, the ability to generate a tree from data is limited to
simpler situations (e.g. will not show the grandparents of somebody who
married into the family.)

From what I've seen, something that automatically produces a nice looking
tree for such complex situations is not available.


"Matthew Pfluger" wrote:

I realized last week that part of a database I've been working on truly
contained hierarchal data (parent - child relationships) as opposed to
relational data. I've read about self-joins and specialized queries, but
that doesn't seem to be the "best" way to do it.

I really have enjoyed learning about the possibilities of storing relational
data in Access, but I frequently work with data that is hierarchal. Is there
a consumer program like Access that is designed to handle hierarchal data?
(By consumer program, I mean something that doesn't require a dedicated DB
manager and team or a visit from IBM.) Particularly, it would be nice to
have a product that can go from a table view to a tree view with no coding.

Thanks for your ideas,
Matthew Pfluger

That's what I'm trying to avoid: static queries. I know one could program a
recursive query and eventually display a tree form as a query, but that's not
exactly true to the data model.

It would be nice if a program could handle parent child relationships
between a data type natively and visually. Granted, there's not a lot of
call for numerous recursive loops, but Access really isn't set up for much
past 3 levels. That's a small Bill of Material, if you ask me.

Matthew Pfluger

Since Access is designed as a relational database system, why would you
expect it to handle hierarchal data?
Your statement is like "This screwdriver sucks, it doesn't drive nails very
well."
--
Dave Hargis, Microsoft Access MVP


"Matthew Pfluger" wrote:

That's what I'm trying to avoid: static queries. I know one could program a
recursive query and eventually display a tree form as a query, but that's not
exactly true to the data model.

It would be nice if a program could handle parent child relationships
between a data type natively and visually. Granted, there's not a lot of
call for numerous recursive loops, but Access really isn't set up for much
past 3 levels. That's a small Bill of Material, if you ask me.

Matthew Pfluger