5.2. Entering Data Into Tables

You have designed two Persons and phone_numbers tables. Both contain no data yet. You can enter some. In this chapter you will learn how to do this fast and effectively.

1. Start with persons table. Open it in Data View using Project Navigtor. Current cell is marked with (usually black) rectangle, a cursor. Contents of the cell, if exists, is highlighted with a diferent color. Current row, i.e. the one you have placed your rectangular cursor in, is marked on the left hand using with an arrow symbol .

   You can navigate through table cells using mouse or arrow keys, Page Down, Page Down, Home, End keys. To learn more about available of the key bindings for the data table view, see the section B.4. Data Table in the Appendix B. Key Bindings.

   Initially, after opening table Persons, the cursor is placed in the id column. The column has autonumber property defined, marked with blue (autonumber) text in the last row. That means you do not have to enter values there by hand when entering data for a new row because the cell will be filled automatically with successive numbers.
   
   Data entry
   
   

2. Inserting new rows and entering data for them in &kexi; is different from the way of doing this in spreadsheets. To enter data for a new row, you need to use the arrow keys or mouse, to move your cursor to the special empty last row marked with ,,plus'' sign. Place your cursor in (second) name column and enter a person's name. Also enter surname, street, house number and city. When done, move down arrow or mouse button to the last empty row to accept new row inserting. You can insert rows you can see in the figure and add more your own.

   Details About Actions Available While Entering Data Into Tables

   • When you started entering data by entering the first character, editing of the current row is started. On the left hand of the data table, pencil symbol appears.
   • Double clicking a cell with &RMB; or pressing Enter or F2 key also starts editing of the current row.
   • Pressing Esc key when, a contents of a cell is edited, cancels changes made to this cell. However pencil symbol will not disappear because you can still move to different cell of the edited row to change its contents. To cancel changes made to entire edited row, press Esc key again.
   • Instead of pressing Esc key, you can click toolbar button or select Data->Cancel Row Changes from the menubar.
   • Click Shift+Enter keys to accept changes made to all cells in the currently edited row. You can also click toolbar button or select Data->Save Row from the menubar.

3. Fill the phone_numbers table with data, e.g. similar to provided in the figure below. In the persons column you need to provide a number of the person existing in the persons table.
   
   Example contents of the phone_numbers table