MS Access: Blocking Bad Data

Oreilly's have provided a free sample chapter, for their just released book, Access 2007: The Missing Manual. The free download is a good introduction to data validation and data integrity techniques in Access, and covers the essential set of Access data validation tools:

• The basics - including duplicates, required fields, and default values.
• Input masks - formatting ordinary text into patterns, like postal codes and phone
numbers.
• Validation rules - to lay down strict laws for unruly fields.
• Lookups limit values to a list of preset choices.