Setting up a new database

You will need the following to begin:

(1)        An ASCII text editor or word processor capable of saving text as an ASCII file.  The Pd' Editor is provided for convenient editing.  Other editors may be used, but be sure to save all files as DOS text.  This is the default in the Pd' Editor, see Editor for more information.

(2)        A printout of all the field names used by your organization to represent accident data.  The required fields are: Case id number, Date, Street (location), Direction of Travel for each vehicle, Movement prior to collision for each vehicle, and a Type of Collision field.  We also recommend Time, Block / Milepost, Distance and Direction from Intersection, Lighting, Injury / Fatality information, Type of Vehicle, and a DUI involvement field.

(3)        A printout of all the lookup values used when coding accident reports.  This may be something like 1=Rear End, N=NORTH, etc.  An excellent source for this information is your state traffic accident report form and the accompanying overlay used by the officers to code it.

(4)        A printout (or firsthand knowledge) of the layout of the ASCII delimited or fixed field file that you will import (if any).  Typically this file will be an Access, dBase, Rbase, or mainframe dump from an existing database.  What you need to know is what order the fields are laid out in.  For example:

You will also need to decide on a name for your database.  It must be four characters long.  You will need to refer to it later.

If your database does not use numbers for all of its values, you must read the section Changes file before proceeding.  You will need to map every character or string value to a number.  This must be understood before creating the lookup file which is the next step.