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Control breaks are used in databases to allow computers to calculate subtotals and break information into meaningful chunks. They can be inserted by programmers or users, and allow for detailed database management without creating new files. Planning ahead is important to avoid errors.
A control break is a category change within a database to allow a computer to calculate subtotals. Control breaks may be necessary for certain types of operations that require logic to break information into meaningful chunks. A human could quickly find natural breaks in a table of information and process them, but a computer needs signals. Programmers can insert breaks at a variety of intervals, and users can create their own as long as they fit within the parameters of the program.
In a simple example, a college might maintain a database of current students. Staff may want to be able to sort this data in a variety of ways. They might require breaking down students by state, province or country, for example. They may want to look at the number of students in any given year, people in particular majors, and so on. Audit breaks can create separate categories within the database to allow the computer to do this.
The creation of nested categories is possible. For example, in the student database, one control break might be by county or similar local government unit, another by state or province, and one final control break by country. Staff may request subtotals at each different control break; for example, they may want to know that of the 150 US students, 70 are from Mississippi. The presence of national and state level outages allows the computer to return this data.
This can be useful in a wide variety of databases, from accounting programs to title and deed records. Control breaks allow detailed database management within a single database, without the need to create new files and entries to sort through different types of information. This makes analytical processes possible. For example, accountants who prepare annual reports can total profit and loss by quarter, line of business, and other metrics.
Database programs can have control breaks built in automatically by designers, and users can add their own, if they follow the specific syntax of the program. It is important to ensure that the control break covers the desired fields, as accidental inclusions could create errors. People may also want to think about how others might use and organize the data when setting up control breaks. Planning ahead can reduce the risk of problems that could make it more difficult for you to access your database and extract the information you need in the future.
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