Link relationships
When you link records from one table to another table, the records will typically fall under one of two relationship types:
One-to-one relationships
In a one-to-one relationship between records in two linked tables, for every record in the primary table there is only one matching record in the lookup table (based on the linked fields). For example, in the Xtreme.mdb database, the Employee table can be linked to the Employee Addresses table based on the Employee ID field in each table. The Employee table contains information about employees at the company, the positions they hold, their salaries, hiring information, etc. The Employee Addresses table contains each employee's home address. There is only one record for each employee in each of these tables. Therefore, if the Employee table is linked to the Employee Addresses table, only one record will be found in the Employee Addresses table for each record in the Employee table. This is a one-to-one relationship.
One-to-many relationships
In a one-to-many relationship between records in two linked tables, for every record in the primary table, there may be more than one matching record in the lookup table, based on the linked fields. In the Xtreme.mdb database, the Customer table can be linked to the Orders table based on the Customer ID field in each table. The Customer table contains information about each customer that has placed an order with the company. The Orders table contains information about orders that customers have placed. Since customers can place more than one order, there may be more than one record in the Orders table for each customer record in the Customers table. This is a one-to-many relationship.