Access Tutorial

Microsoft-Access Tutorial
Soren Lauesen
E-mail: slauesen@itu.dk
Version 2.4a: August 2007
Contents
1. The hotel system................................................... 4 5.2.2 Computed SQL and live search...............74
2. Creating a database ............................................. 6 5.2.3 Composite search criteria........................76
2.1 Create a database in Access ............................. 6 5.2.4 Event sequence for text box ....................78
2.2 Create more tables ......................................... 10 5.3 Visual Basic tools...........................................80
2.3 Create relationships ....................................... 12 5.4 Command buttons ..........................................84
2.4 Look-up fields, enumeration type .................. 14 5.5 Forms .............................................................86
2.5 Dealing with trees and networks.................... 16 5.5.1 Open, close, and events...........................86
3. Access-based user interfaces ............................. 18 5.5.2 CRUD control in Forms ..........................87
3.1 Forms and simple controls............................. 18 5.5.3 The OpenForm parameters......................89
3.1.1 Text box, label and command button...... 18 5.5.4 Multi-purpose forms (hotel system)........90
3.1.2 Adjusting the controls............................. 20 5.5.5 Dialog boxes (modal dialog)...................92
3.1.3 Cleaning up the form .............................. 20 5.5.6 Controlling record selection....................93
3.1.4 Shortcut keys for the user ....................... 22 5.5.7 Column order, column hidden, etc. .........94
3.1.5 Lines, checkbox, calendar....................... 22 5.5.8 Area selection, SelTop, etc......................94
3.1.6 Combo box - enumeration type .............. 24 5.5.9 Key preview ............................................97
3.1.7 Combo box - table look up ..................... 26 5.5.10 Error preview ........................................97
3.1.8 Control properties - text box................... 28 5.5.11 Timer and loop breaking .......................98
3.2 Subforms........................................................ 30 5.5.12 Multiple form instances.........................99
3.2.1 Subform in Datasheet view..................... 31 5.5.13 Resize..................................................100
3.2.2 Adjust the subform ................................. 34 5.6 Record sets (DAO).......................................102
3.2.3 Mockup subform..................................... 36 5.6.1 Programmed record updates..................102
3.2.4 Subform in Form view............................ 36 5.6.2 How the record set works......................104
3.2.5 Summary of subforms............................. 38 5.6.3 The bound record set in a Form ............106
3.2.6 Prefixes ................................................... 38 5.6.4 Record set properties, survey ................108
3.3 Bound, unbound and computed controls........ 40 5.7 Modules and menu functions .......................110
3.3.1 Showing subform fields in the main form42 5.7.1 Create a menu function .........................110
3.3.2 Variable colors - conditional formatting. 42 5.7.2 Define the menu item............................112
3.4 Tab controls and option groups...................... 44 5.7.3 Managing modules and class modules ..112
3.5 Menus ............................................................ 46 5.7.4 Global variables ....................................114
3.5.1 Create a new menu bar............................ 46 6. Visual Basic reference......................................116
3.5.2 Add commands to the menu list ............. 48 6.1 Statements ....................................................116
3.5.3 Attach the toolbar to a form.................... 48 6.2 Declarations .................................................120
3.5.4 Startup settings - hiding developer stuff . 48 6.3 Constants and addresses...............................122
3.6 Control tips, messages, mockup prints .......... 50 6.4 Operators and conversion functions .............124
4. Queries - computed tables................................. 52 6.5 Other functions.............................................128
4.1 Query: join two tables.................................... 52 6.6 Display formats and regional settings ..........132
4.2 SQL and how it works ................................... 54 7. Access and SQL................................................134
4.3 Outer join ....................................................... 56 7.1 Action queries - CRUD with SQL ...............134
4.4 Aggregate query - Group By.......................... 58 7.1.1 Temporary table for editing ..................134
4.5 Query a query, handling null values .............. 62 7.2 UNION query...............................................136
4.6 Query with user criteria ................................. 64 7.3 Subqueries (EXISTS, IN, ANY, ALL . . .) ..138
4.7 Bound main form and subform ...................... 66 7.4 Multiple join and matrix presentation ..........140
4.7.1 Editing a GROUP BY query................... 67 7.5 Dynamic matrix presentation .......................142
5. Access through Visual Basic ............................. 68 7.6 Crosstab and matrix presentation .................144
5.1 The objects in Access .................................... 68 8. References.........................................................148
5.2 Event procedures (for text box) ..................... 72 Index......................................................................149
5.2.1 More text box properties......................... 72
Printing instructions
Print on A4 paper with 2-sided printing so that text and associated figures are on
opposing pages.
Version 1: October 2004.
Version 2.1: November 2004. Changes:

a. Restructured section 3.2 with small additions.
b. Section 7.1 on action queries added.
c. Small changes and additions to Chapter 6 with corresponding changes in the
Reference Card.
d. Index provided
Version 2.2: April 2004. Changes:

a. SQL HAVING introduced in section 4.2 and the example in section 4.4.
b. More on aggregate functions in section 4.4.
c. ColumnOrder, ColumnWidth discussed in section 5.5.7.
d. Selection of an area in the datasheet is discussed in section 5.5.8.
e. Section 5.7 (action queries) now moved to Chapter 7.
f. Action queries, Union, Subqueries, Crosstab, etc. discussed in Chapter 7 (a new
chapter).
g. Various small changes and improved explanations here and there.
Version 2.3: September 2006. Changes:

a. Access 2003 dialog when opening a database changed (page 8).
b. Look-up fields for foreign keys deleted (last part of section 2.4). Access's
automatic creation of relationships caused too much confusion.
c. Combo boxes described in sections 3.1.6 and 3.1.7.
d. More events explained in section 5.2.3.
e. Various misprints corrected.
Version 2.4: August 2007. Changes:

a. Partial integrity (page 12).
b. Adding a label to a control (page 20).
c. DateTime Picker (page 22).
d. More Null rules (page 62, 77, 124).
e. Access data model and experiments improved (page 68-70).
f. Composite search criteria, more computed SQL, date comparison (page 76-77).
g. Event sequence for textbox: small corrections, e.g. OldValue (page 78).
h. Improved area selection (page 95-96).
i. Error handling, user errors (page 97-98).
j. Timer and loop breaking (page 98-99).
k. Managing modules and class modules (page 112).
l. Error handling, VBA errors, Err object (page 117).
m. Enum type (page 121).
n. Partition operator (page 124).
o. Week number in the Format function (page 126).
p. Dynamic matrix simplified (page 136).
q. Minor corrections and improvements in many places.
r. Version 2.4a: Note on AutoNumber added to Figures 2.1C and 2.4.
© Soren Lauesen, 2007

Permission is granted to make paper copies of the file on a non-profit basis as long
as the source is clearly stated.
2 Preface
Preface
This booklet shows how to construct a complex appli- 6. Visual Basic reference. A reference guide to the
cation in Microsoft Access (MS-Access). We assume Visual Basic language for Applications (VBA).
that the user interface has been designed already as a
paper-based mockup (a prototype). How to design a 7. Access and SQL. An overview of the remaining
good user interface is a separate story explained in parts of SQL, for instance how to update the
User Interface Design - a Software Engineering Per- database through SQL. We also explain how to
spective, by Soren Lauesen. generate matrices of data with dynamically chan-
ging headings.
After design, development continues with constructing
the database, constructing the user interface, binding Using the booklet for teaching
the user interface to the database, and finally develop We have experimented with using the booklet for
the program. This is what this booklet is about. teaching. First we tried to present part of the material
with a projector, then let the students try it out on their
The reason we illustrate the construction process with own, next present some more, etc. Although the
MS-Access is that it is a widely available tool. Any- students listened carefully, it turned out to be a waste
body who has Microsoft Office with MS-Word, also of time, partly because the students worked with vastly
has Access and the programming language Visual Ba- different pace.
sic behind Access.
Now we give a 15 minute introduction to the main
MS-Access is also a good illustration of many princi- parts of Access: the database window, the tables, the
ples that exist on other platforms too, for instance a re- forms - and how they relate to what they have learned
lational database, a Graphical User Interface (GUI), in user interface design. Then the students work on
event handling, and an object-oriented programming their own. We have instructors to help them out when
language. MS-Access contains all of these parts - co- they get stuck.
operating reasonably smoothly.
The hotel system
Organization of the booklet We have chosen to illustrate the construction process
The chapters in the booklet are organized like this: with a hotel example, because most people have an
idea what it is about, yet it is sufficiently complex to
1. An introduction to the hotel system that is used as show typical solutions in larger systems. Some of the
an example throughout the booklet. complexities are that a hotel has many types of rooms
at different prices; a guest can book several rooms,
2. Creating a database. Construct a database that cor- maybe in overlapping periods; a room may need reno-
responds to the data model behind the design. The vation or repair, making it unavailable for a period; the
user will only see the database indirectly - through hotel keeps track of regular guests and their visits over
the screens we construct. time.
3. Access-based user interfaces. Construct the screens Simplifications
and menus that the user will see. We follow the pa- However, we have simplified the system in many other
per-based mockup designed in User Interface De- ways to shorten the discussion. For instance we ignore
sign. You can use the result as a tool-based that in most hotels, rooms are not booked by room
mockup. number, but by room type; hotels usually overbook, i.e.
book more rooms than they have, expecting that some
4. Queries - computed tables. Connect the screens to customers will not turn up. We also ignore all the other
the database, usually by means of queries - com- aspects of operating a hotel, for instance keeping track
puted data tables. The result will be a partially of when rooms are cleaned and ready for the next
functional prototype. guest, purchasing goods, planning who is to be on duty
for the next weeks, payroll and general accounting. In
5. Access through Visual Basic. Program what the
spite of these simplifications, the example still shows
buttons and menus will do when the user activates
the structure of larger systems.
them. The result will be a fully functional prototype
and later the final system to be delivered to the On-line resources
customer. The first part of the chapter is tutorial - A demo-version of the hotel system, a VBA reference
mandatory reading if you want to work with Visual card, etc. are available from the authors's web site:
Basic and Access. The rest of the chapter is for www.itu.dk/people/slauesen. Comments are welcome.
looking up various subjects. We assume you know
a bit of programming already. Soren Lauesen, slauesen@itu.dk
Preface 3
1. The hotel system
In this booklet we illustrate MS-Access by means of a record services that the guest has received. The system
system for supporting a hotel reception. The system is uses the term Stay to mean a booking or a guest who
used as the main example in User Interface Design - a has checked in.
Software Engineering Perspective, by Soren Lauesen.
If you know the book, skip this section and go straight Breakfast list. The Breakfast screen shows the break-
to Chapter 2. fast servings for a specific date. It handles just two
kinds of breakfast: self-service breakfast in the restau-
Screens rant (buffet) and breakfast served in the room. The
The hotel system consists of the screens shown in Fig- waiter in the restaurant has a paper copy of the list and
ure 1A. records the servings here. Later the receptionist enters
the data through the Breakfast screen.
Find guest. The Find guest screen allows the recep-
tionist to find a guest or a booking in the database. The Service list. The Service list shows the price for each
receptionist may enter part of the guest name and click kind of service. Hotel management uses this list to
the Find guest button. The system then updates the change service prices or add new kinds of service.
lower part of the screen to show the guests or bookings
that match. The receptionist may also find the guest by Database
his phone number, room number, or stay number (also The system uses a database with several tables. They
called booking number). are shown as an E/R data model on Figure 1B.
The receptionist can select the guest from the list and tblGuest has a record for each guest with his address
click the buttons to see details of the booking or create and phone number.
a new booking for the guest.
tblStay has a record for each stay (booking or checked
Room Selection. The Room Selection screen gives an in) with a booking number (stay number) and the pay
overview of available rooms in a certain period. Avail- method.
ability is shown as IN when the room is occupied,
BOO when it is booked, etc. The receptionist may tblRoom has a record for each room in the hotel.
specify the period of interest and the type of room, then
click the Find room button. The system updates the ta- tblRoomState has a record for each date where a room
ble at the bottom of the screen to show the rooms of is occupied. It connects to the room occupied and the
interest. The receptionist can then choose a room and stay that occupies it. If the room is occupied for repair,
book it for the guest – or check a guest into the room. it doesn’t connect to a stay.
Stay. The Stay screen shows all the details of a book- tblRoomType has a record for each type of room (room
ing, for instance the guest and his address, the rooms class) with a short description of the room type, the
he has booked and the prices. When the guest is number of beds, and the prices.
checked in, the Stay screen also shows breakfast and
tblService has a record for each type of service with its
other services he has received. The system shows these
name and price per unit.
details on the Services tab. Here the receptionist can
tblServiceReceived has a record for each delivery of
service to a guest. It connects to the type of service and
to the stay where the service is charged (there is an in-
voice for each stay).
Fig 1B. Tables as E/R model
tblGuest
tblStay tblServiceReceived tblServiceType
tblRoomState
tblRoom tblRoomType
4 1. The hotel system

Fig 1A. Hotel system screens
1. The hotel system 5

2. Creating a database
Highlights there are only small differences from Access 97 and
• Transform the data model to a database in MS- Access 2003. We will mention the more important
Access. ones.
• Use lookup-fields to enter foreign keys and enu-
meration types. In this and the following chapters we will use the hotel
system as an example, and you will construct several
parts of the system. However, the purpose is not to
In this chapter you learn how to realize a data model as construct the hotel system, but to show how MS-
a relational database in Microsoft Access. We assume Access works. This knowledge will enable you to con-
that you know about data modeling, tables, attributes, struct a functional version of your own system - for in-
and foreign keys as explained in User Interface Design. stance the one you have designed when reading User
The description below is based on Access 2000, but Interface Design.
2.1 Create a database in Access

In Microsoft Access a database consists of one single
file. The file contains all the tables of the database, the Warning: Make sure you follow the steps below
relationships (the crow's feet), queries (computed ta- closely. Don't skip any of the numbered steps. The
bles), forms (user windows), and many other things. result might be that you get stuck later in the text.
As a systems developer you will design tables and user Create the database
windows. As a user you will enter data into the tables 1. Locate the Access program. Depending on the way
(usually through user windows) and get data out of the the system is set up, you may find it under Pro-
tables, for instance through the same windows or grams -> Microsoft Access or Programs -> Micro-
through printed reports. soft Office -> Microsoft Access.
2. In Access 97 and 2000: Open Access and ask for a
In Access it is very easy to switch between the devel- "blank" database.
oper role and the user role. As a developer you will In Access 2003: Open Access and click the New
typically design some tables, then switch to the user icon (under the File menu). Then click Blank da-
role to enter data into them, then switch back to the de- tabase in the help area to the far right.
veloper role to change the design, design more tables, 3. Access now asks where to store the new database.
etc. Access can to a large extent restructure the data Select the folder you want and give the database
that already is in the database so that it matches the the name hotel (or hotel.mdb).
new table design.
The screen now shows the database window. It should
look like Figure 2.1A. (In Access 97 it looks slightly
Fig 2.1A The Access database window
One Access database = one file.

File name = hotel.mdb
Use the table.

Shortcut: Enter
Create a
table
Design the table.
Shortcut: Ctrl+Enter
The database window:

List of tables
(empty initially)
6 2. Creating a database
Fig 2.1B Define a table (design view)
Table name. Access asks for it the

first time you close the window.
Primary key.
Right click
One line Possible

per field data types
Field properties.
Also use F1 - Help.
different). We have selected the Tables tab, but there of type Text, except the guestID which is of type
are no tables or other things in the database as yet. AutoNumber.
However, you see three icons that can create tables for
you. When you have created a table, it will appear in Note that although we say phone number and passport
the table window and you can then Open it and enter number, these fields are texts because the "numbers"
data into it, or you can Design it, i.e. change the defi- contain parentheses, dashes and maybe letters.
nition of it. (In Access 97 the database window looks
like a traditional tab form. There are no create-icons, When you have chosen a data type, you can choose a
but function buttons for the same purpose.) number of other field properties. They are in the lower
part of the window. On the figure you can see that the
Define a table name field is a text field with space for 50 characters.
4. Double click on Create table in Design view. You can also see that the user doesn't have to enter
anything in the name field (Required=No). You should
Now you get a window as shown on Figure 2.1B. Here change this to Yes since it doesn't make sense to have a
you define the fields (attributes) of the table. The list of guest without a name.
fields runs downwards with one line per field. Initially
there are only empty lines. The table hasn't got a name Try to use Access's help to find more information about
yet. Access asks for the name when you close the win- the data types and their properties. For instance, put the
dow. cursor in the Data Type of a field and click F1. Or
point at one of the properties and click F1.
The figure shows the finished guest table. You see the
field names to the left. In the middle column is the type Lookup Wizard is not a field type. If you select Lookup
of the field - Data Type. The figure shows all the pos- Wizard, it makes the field into a combo box where the
sible types as a combo box. The most important data user can select a value instead of typing it into the
types are Text, Number, Date/Time, and AutoNumber. field. We will look closer at Lookup in section 2.4.
An AutoNumber is a counter that Access increases for
each new record, so that it serves as a unique key. The Key fields
value is a Long Integer (32-bit integer). We explain Often you have to define a key field so that other tables
more about data types in the next section. can refer to this one. In our case, guestID must be the
key field:
5. Fill in all the field lines according to the attributes
in the guest table (see the figure). All the fields are 6. Right-click somewhere in the guestID line. Then
select Primary Key. Access now shows that the
field is the key.
2. Creating a database 7
You can remove the key property again by once more 12. The file may not be safe. Do you want to open it?
selecting Primary Key. If the key consists of more than Your database is safe, so answer Open.
one field, you first select all the fields by clicking on 13. Unsafe expressions are not blocked. Do you want
their left-hand marker with Ctrl down. Then select to block them? You want full freedom, so answer
Primary Key by right-clicking inside one of the field No.
lines. 14. Access warns you one more time whether you
want to open. Say Open or Yes. (In some versions
7. Close the window. Access asks you for the name the question is a very long text box, and you
of the table. Call it tblGuest. (The prefix tbl will cannot understand it. Say yes anyway.)
help you remember that it is a table. As the system
grows, there will be guest windows, guest buttons As an alternative, you may say yes to blocking the
and many other things. Without discipline on your unsafe expressions. This will save you some questions
part, it becomes a mess.) when you open the file in the future. However, some
installations don't allow you to block expressions.
If you have not defined a primary key, Access will
warn you and suggest that it makes one for you. Don't Note that Access 2003 shows that your database is in
let it - do it yourself. Or at least check what Access Access 2000 format. This is all right. It allows you to
makes in its excessive helpfulness. use it also from Access 2000. You can convert it to
other formats with Tools -> Database Utilities -> Con-
Enter data vert Database.
After these efforts, it is time to record some guests.
Fortunately it is easy: Undo. Use Esc to undo the changes you have made to
the current record.
8. Select the guest table in the database window.
Click Open or just use Enter. • The first Esc undoes changes to the field where the
cursor is.
Now the system shows the table in user mode (Da-
• The second Esc undoes all changes to the record
tasheet view) so that you can enter guest data.
where the cursor is.
9. Enter the guests shown on Figure 2.1C. You add a
new guest in the empty line of the table - the one As soon as you move the cursor to the next line,
marked with a star. Notice that as soon you start Access stores the record in the database and you cannot
entering something, the record indicator changes to make an automatic undo anymore. However, you can
a pencil and a new star line appears. The pencil manually edit the stored record. Notice that the pencil
shows that you are editing the record, and the disappears when the record is stored in the database.
record you see is not yet in the database.
Shortcut keys for data entry
On Figure 2.1C we originally entered a guest that got F2: Toggles between selecting the entire field and se-
guestID 4, later deleted this guest. Access will never lecting a data entry point.
reuse number 4 for a guest. Shift+F2: Opens a small window with space for the
entire field. Useful for entering long texts into a
Close and reopen the database field that is shown only partly in the table. How-
To feel confident with Access, it is a good idea to close ever, the text cannot be longer than you specified in
and open the database now. the table definition.
Alt+ArrowDown: Opens a combo box. Choose with
10. Close the large Access window. (Not the small the arrows and Enter.
database window inside the Access window.)
Shortcut keys for navigation
Notice that Access doesn't ask whether you want to Tab and Shift+Tab: Moves from field to field.
save changes. Access saves them all along, for instance Ctrl+Tab: Moves from one tab form to the next, for in-
when you define a table or when you enter a record in stance in the lower part of the table definition win-
the table. dow.
F6: Moves between upper and lower section of a win-
11. Find your database file (hotel.mdb) in the file fold- dow, for instance in the table definition window.
ers. Use Enter or double click to open it. Ctrl+Enter: Opens the table in design mode (in the da-
tabase window).
Access 2003 is very security concerned and asks you
several questions when you open the file. The dialog
See also shortcuts on the reference card
may vary from one installation to another, but is
something like this:
Fig 2.1C Enter data in user mode (datasheet view)
In database window:
Select table -> Open (or Enter)
AutoNumber: You get

1, 2, 3, 4. Don't worry
that it is different
from the figure.
Record
selector
Add
record F2 to select entire field Shift+F2 to see field in a separate window
Edit Esc to undo.

indicator First Esc: Undo field change
Second: Undo record changes
2.2 Create more tables
You should now create the remaining tables for the tblRoomState:
hotel. The data model on Figure 2.2 shows the tables stayID and roomID are foreign keys. Ensure their types
we will use. To simplify your job, we have shown all match what they refer to. Notice that roomID refers
the keys, including the foreign keys and the artificial to a natural key, not to an AutoNumber.
keys. date should be a Date/Time field with Format = Short
Date.
1. Close the guest table. personCount is the number of persons staying in the
2. Create all the remaining tables in the same way as room. An integer should suffice.
you created the guest table (from the Tables tab state is similar to state for tblStay, although the values
use Create table in Design view - or click New). are slightly different.
The key consists of two fields: roomID and date. It is a
Make sure you define all the fields. Otherwise you will bit tricky to specify this: select both fields by
get stuck when later constructing the user interface. clicking on the left-hand marker (hold down Ctrl
Here are a few notes about the various tables: while selecting the second field). Then right-click
somewhere on the text inside the line.
tblStay:
stayID is the primary key of tblStay. Make it an Auto- Optional tables
Number.
The following two tables are needed for the full sys-
guestID is a foreign key that refers to the AutoNumber
tem. However, you don't need to create them in order
in tblGuest. The foreign key must have a matching
to follow the tutorial.
data type - a long integer. Choose Data Type =
Number and Field Size = Long Integer. Warning: tblServiceType:
Don't make the foreign key an AutoNumber. This serviceID is an artificial key. Should be an Auto-
would cause Access to fill in the foreign key fields Number.
automatically, and you cannot change the numbers name and price should be obvious. The price should be
so that they point to the primary keys in the guest a decimal number. Choose Data Type=Number,
table. Field Size= Single, Decimal Places =2.
paymethod is an enumeration type. Make it an integer
(a 16-bit integer, not a long integer). Choose Data tblServiceReceived:
Type = Number and Field Size= Integer. We will stayID and serviceID are foreign keys that refer to
use the value 1 to denote Cash, the value 2 to de- AutoNumbers. The foreign keys must thus be long
note Visa, etc. We will look closer at this in section integers.
2.4. roomID is an optional reference to a room. An integer
state must also be an enumeration type. Make it an in- should suffice. (This reference is needed when a
teger. Here the value 1 will denote booked, 2 in, etc. waiter records a service for a specific room and the
guest has more than one room.)
tblRoomType: date should be a Date/Time field. Choose Format =
Contains one record for each type of room, for instance Short Date.
one for double rooms, one for single rooms, etc. (In the quantity is the number of items the guest has got - an
book User Interface Design, we added this table late in integer should suffice.
the design process to illustrate the normalization con-
cept.) Data types
Data is stored in the computer according to its type.
roomType is an artificial key. An AutoNumber is okay.
Here is a description of the most important types in the
description is a short text, for instance "double room,
data base. Visual Basic deals with almost the same
bath".
types (see section 6.2 and the reference card under
bedCount is the number of beds in the room, including
Declarations).
temporary beds.
price1 and price2 are the standard price and a possible Text. The field can contain any characters. The Field
discount price. The price should be a decimal num- Size property defines the maximum number of charac-
ber. Choose Data Type=Number, Field Size= Sin- ters. The maximum cannot be above 255 characters.
gle, Decimal Places =2.
Memo. Like a text field, but the maximum number of
tblRoom: characters is 65,535. Access takes more time to process
roomID is a natural key - the number on the door. So a memo field, so use text fields if adequate.
don't use an AutoNumber. Use an integer.
roomType is a foreign key that refers to tblRoomType. Number. The field can contain a number. The Field
(You should by know how to deal with it.) Size property defines what kind of number:
• Integer. A small integer. It must be in the range - Also here you can choose a format that adapts to the
32,768 to +32,767 (a 16-bit integer). regional setting.
• Long Integer. It must be in the range from around
-2,140 million to +2,140 million (a 32-bit integer). Yes/No. The field contains a Boolean value shown
• Single. A decimal number in the range from either as Yes/No, True/False, or On/Off. The format
-3.4*1038 to +3.4*1038 with an accuracy of 6 or 7 property specifies this.
significant digits (a 32-bit floating point number).
AutoNumber. The field is a long integer (32 bits) that
• Double. A decimal number in the range from
Access generates itself as a unique number in the table.
-1.8*10308 to +1.8*10308 with 14 significant digits
Access numbers the records 1, 2, . . . as you enter the
(a 64-bit floating point number).
records. However, you cannot trust that the sequence is
• Decimal. A very long integer with a decimal point unbroken. For instance when you add a record and
placed somewhere. Intended for monetary calcula- undo the addition before having completed it, Access
tions where rounding must be strictly controlled. uses the next number in the sequence anyway.
In the book we use Single or Double instead.
A foreign key is a field (or several fields) that refer to
Numbers can be shown in many ways depending on the something unique in another table - usually the primary
format property of the field. You may for instance key. Be careful here. The foreign key and the primary
show them with a fixed number of decimals, with a key must have the same type. However, when the
currency symbol, etc. primary key is an AutoNumber, the foreign key must
be a long integer.
Some formats show data in a way that depends on the
regional settings of the computer. If you for instance Changing a data type. Access is quite liberal with
specify the format of a number as Currency, the changing a data type to something else - even if there
number will show with a $ on a US computer and with are data in the records. It can also change an Auto-
a £ on a British computer. Number field to a number field, but not the other way
around. If you need to change field B to an Auto-
Date/Time. The field gives a point in time. In the
Number, create a new field C and make it an Auto-
computer it is stored as the number of days since
Number. Then delete field B and rename field C to B.
30/12-1899 at 0:00. It is really a Double number, so the
number of days may include a fraction of a day. In this If you for some reason want to store a record with an
way the field specifies the date as well as the time with AutoNumber of your own choice (for instance create a
high precision. As an example, the number 1 corre- stay with stayID=728), you need to append the record
sponds to 31/12-1899 at 0:00, the number 1.75 to with an INSERT query (see section 7.1). You cannot
31/12-1899 at 18:00 (6 PM). just type in the stayID.
Usually we don't show a date field as a number, but as
a date and/or a time. The format property specifies this.
Fig 2.2 Create remaining tables

Optional tables
guestID, name, address1,
address2, address3,
phone, passport
tblGuest stayID, serviceID,
serviceID, name, price
roomID, date, quantity
stayID, guestID,
tblStay tblServiceReceived tblServiceType
paymethod (cash | visa ...),
state (booked | in |out | canceled)
stayID, roomID,
date, personCount, tblRoomState
state (booked | occupied | repair)
roomType, description
roomID, roomType tblRoom tblRoomType bedCount, price1, price2
2.3 Create relationships
When we have several tables, we can make relation- In the edit-relationship window, you can specify
ships (crow's feet). Then we get an E/R model instead foreign keys that consist of several fields. You can also
of a simple collection of tables. The relationships allow specify that the relationship has referential integrity, so
Access to help us retrieve data across tables, check ref- that all records on the m-side point to a record on the 1-
erential integrity, etc. side.
Figure 2.3 shows the hotel relationships in Access. It 7. In our case, all stays must point to a guest, so mark
resembles the crow's feet model quite well. You define the connector enforce referential integrity. (If
the relationships in this way: Access refuses this, it is most likely because you
have not defined the foreign key as a long integer.)
1. Start in the database window and right-click 8. Close the relationship window. The relationship
somewhere. connector now appears in the window between the
2. Choose Relationships. foreign key and its target.
Now you see an empty Relationship Window. You The referential integrity makes Access show the con-
have to tell Access which tables to show here. Some- nector as 1-∞ (1:m). Based on referential integrity and
times a Show Table window pops up by itself. Other- whether the connected fields are primary keys, Access
wise you have to invoke it with a right-click in the re- may also decide that it is a 1:1 relationship. It is not
lationship window. important what Access decides in these matters. You
can later tell it otherwise when you want to use the
3. In the Show Table window, select the tables you connector.
want to include. In the hotel system it is all the ta-
bles. 9. Create the remaining relationships too. Note that
4. Click Add and close the window. Now the tables there is no referential integrity between tblStay and
should be in the relationship window. tblRoomState. It is on purpose - if the room is in
5. Create the relationship between tblGuest and repair state there is no connected stay.
tblStay by dragging guestID from one table to
guestID in the other. Partial integrity. Access provides a more relaxed
6. An edit-relationship window pops up. If not, right- version of referential integrity. It allows the foreign key
click on the relationship connector and choose the to be either empty (Null) or point to a record on the 1-
edit window. side. This is the case for the relationship between
tblStay and tblRoomState. Give it partial integrity in
Access may complain: this way:
Relationships must be on the same number of fields 10. Open tblRoomState in design view. For stayID
with the same data types. (the foreign key) set the Default Value to empty
(delete all characters in the field). Also set
The cause is often that one end of the connector is an Required to No.
AutoNumber and the other end a simple integer. It 11. In the relationship window, right-click on the
must be a long integer to match the AutoNumber. connector and choose the edit window. Select
enforce referential integrity.
Note that you cannot see in the relationship window

whether the relationship has full or partial referential
integrity.
Deleting a relationship. If you need to delete a rela-

tionship, click it and press Del.
Fig 2.3 Create relationships
Right-click in database window.

Select Relationships
Choose tables to show Right-click in ER diagram.

in the ER diagram Select Show Table
Foreign key
Primary key
Create a relationship:
Drag 1-side field to m-side field (or opposite).
Edit the relationship - Referential integrity!
2.4 Look-up fields, enumeration type
Your next task will be to fill in some data in all the ta- How the look-up field works
bles. However, some of the fields are cumbersome to Open tblStay in design mode and study the Lookup tab
fill in correctly. As an example, the pay method field is for paymethod (bottom of Figure 2.4). The display
a code where 1 means Cash, 2 Visa, etc. The user control property is Combo Box. It means that when the
should not have to remember these codes, so we will user is to fill in the paymethod, he sees a combo box.
let the user choose the value from a list. It is an
enumeration-type field: • For ordinary fields Display Control is Text Box. A
text box shows texts, numbers, etc. as a string of
paymethod(Cash | Visa | . . . ) characters. If you want to change the field back to
an ordinary field, just set Display Control to Text
Figure 2.4 shows what we want when the user fills in Box.
the paymethod field. We want the field to be a combo
box where the user can select the mnemonic text while The values the user can choose between are listed in
Access stores the number code. Here is how to do it: Row Source. You may edit the values here. Column
Count shows that these values are to be displayed as
1. Open tblStay in design view. (Select it and click two columns. Notice that Limit to List is No. It means
Design or use Ctrl+Enter). that the user can enter other values than those in the
2. Select the paymethod field and the data type list. In our case, it is not desirable, so set the property
Lookup Wizard. to Yes. Sections 3.1.6 and 3.1.7 explain more about
3. Access asks whether you (as a user) want to select combo boxes.
the values from a table or from a list of values that
you (as a designer) type in. Choose to type them
in. Then click Next.
4. Access asks how many columns your combo box Undo the Lookup Wizard?
should have. Choose two and fill in the columns as How do you make the field an ordinary field rather
shown on the figure. Then click Next. than a lookup field? It doesn't help to make it an integer
5. Access asks which column holds the value to store or a text. Choose the Lookup tab at the bottom of the
in the table. In our case it is column 1. table design window. Change Display Control to Text
6. Finally, Access asks for the column name that the Box. (See bottom of Figure 2.4.)
user will see. In our case, paymethod is okay.
Click Finish.
Panic? Undo data entry
Fill in some stay records When you enter data into the tables, Access checks
You are now going to create some stay records and against the rules you have defined for the tables and the
connect them to a guest. relationships. For instance, when you enter the guestID
in tblStay, this ID must correspond to a guest in the
7. Close the table design window and open it in user
guest table. Access doesn't allow you to leave the
mode.
record before this is fixed. The reason is that Access
8. Also open tblGuest in user mode. Keep the two
stores the record in the database as soon as you move
tables side by side so you can see both. Make sure
the cursor away from the record. And the database
you have created some guests. Otherwise do it
must meet all the rules you have stated.
now.
9. Fill in a stay record using the combo box for Sometimes you may not know what to type to satisfy
paymethod. Notice that what you see as a designer, Access, and on the other hand you cannot leave the re-
is the number stored in the database. The user cord to look at what to type. Many users panic here and
should not see the number, but the text. We can even switch off the power to close down the system.
arrange for this when the field becomes a text box The solution is to use Esc twice:
in the user window (see section 3.2.2).
10. Also fill in the foreign key guestID so that it refers • First Esc: Undoes the correction you made in the
to one of the guests. Since there is referential field where the cursor is.
integrity, Access won't let you store the stay record • Second Esc: Undoes all the changes you made to
without a proper guestID. If you get into real the record where the cursor is. This means that the
trouble, use Esc twice (see the Panic box for the database returns to a consistent state where all the
explanation). rules are met.
11. Fill in a few more stay records in the same way.
Fig 2.4 Look-up fields, enumeration type
Desired result
AutoNumber: You get

How?
1, 2, 3, 4. Don't worry.
Table in design mode:

Select Paymethod ->
Data Type -> Lookup Wizard
What to store The values the

in the table user sees
To undo the Wizard:
Change to Text Box
Possible values
User may enter

anything.
Should be Yes?
Populate the database You may soon find that a simple little database uses
12. Define the other enumeration fields as lookup several megabytes. Fortunately, Access can compact
fields in the same way (the state fields in tblStay the database. Do that every now and then in this way:
and tblRoomState).
13. Fill in some realistic data in all the tables. You 14. Select Tools->Database Utilities->Compact and
may for instance use data corresponding to the Repair Database. That is all. You may check that
situation in Figure 1A. Now you have test data for the file length actually became much smaller. (In
the rest of the booklet. Access 97, the Compact and the Repair utilities are
separate.)
Important: Compact the database
Access is very liberate with disk space and when you
change things, it consumes new blocks on the disk.
2.5 Dealing with trees and networks
E/R models can neatly describe complex relationships, 1. Create a new database, FlightRoutes. Create the
for instance as we saw it for the flight routes in User tables City, Leg and Route in the usual way.
Interface Design. Figure 2.5 shows the E/R model, but
Access cannot show such a model directly. 2. Open the relationship window and add all three ta-
bles to the relationship window. Then add City and
The problem is that Access identifies a relationship by Leg once more. The relationship window should
means of the two tables it connects. This means that now contain also a City_1 and a Leg_1 as shown
Access cannot have two connectors between the same on the figure.
two tables. Also you cannot have a self-referential con-
nector. In the flight route model we need both of these. 3. Drag the connectors as shown. You now have two
connectors between City and Leg. One is deter-
As a compensation, Access offers shadow copies of a mined by City and the foreign key from. The other
table. The table and its shadow copies are the same ta- is determined by City_1 and the foreign key to.
ble, but they have different names. You can now create You also have a self-referential connector from
connectors to the shadow copies and thus indirectly Leg to itself. It is determined by Leg_1 and the
create multiple connectors between the same two ta- foreign key next.
bles.
4. Try to fill in data for AA331 according to the fig-
Figure 2.5 shows how to handle the flight routes in ure. Note that there are only one City table and one
Access by means of shadow copies. Leg table to fill in. The shadow tables are not real
tables.
Fig 2.5 Flight routes - shadow tables
Route routeID, mon, tue, Route: AA331. Mon, Wed

wed, thu, fri, sat, sun
Arr Dep
cityID, name
Chicago 10:45
from legID,
Columbus 11:40 12:20
City Leg route, next, from, to Washington 13:30 14:15 A leg
to deptTime, arrTime, New York 15:10
next
Right-click -> Show table.

Show City once more.
Two relationships between City Relationship between Leg and

and Leg: Shadow copy of City. Leg: Shadow copy of Leg.
3. Access-based user interfaces
Highlights (control tips). These are the things the user sees on the
• Construct user windows (Forms). screen. Access provides a lot of built-in functionality
• Add fields, sub-windows, etc. (Controls). that makes the user interface respond to user actions.
• Construct menus and other details. However, for a real system the built-in functionality is
rarely sufficient, and you will have to add your own
program pieces written in Visual Basic.
An Access-based user interface consists of user win-
In this chapter we look only at what the user sees on
dows (called Forms in Access) , menus, and all the
the screen. We hardly put real data into the fields. What
little things such as error messages (message boxes)
we are after is a tool-based mockup. Later we will add
and pop up help when the cursor rests on a field
real data and functionality to the screens.
3.1 Forms and simple controls

In this section we will gradually implement the 3.1.1 Text box, label and command button
mockup window you see in Figure 3.1A. This window 4. The screen should show a toolbox window where
helps the receptionist find a guest or a booking in the you can choose between various controls (bottom
database. Large hotels may have more than 100,000 left on the figure). If it doesn't, use View ->
guests in the database. Toolbox to see it.
5. Click the Text Box tool that looks like ab| and then
In the Access world, the window consists of a Form draw the white part of the field Last name. Draw it
with various Controls on it. A control may be a simple so that it is two grid units high and about ten units
field such as Last name, a button such as Find guest, an wide.
area for a list of records such as the list of stays, and
several other things. At this stage, don't worry if your controls are not prop-
erly aligned and sized. We explain about these details
Let us get started: below. To delete a control, select it and click Del. Or
use Esc to undo the last thing you made.
1. Start in the database window, click the Forms tab,
and select Create form in Design view. 6. Access has automatically added a label part to the
left of the field. Click it and change the label for
You now get an empty form in design mode, looking
the control to Last name:
somewhat like the one at the bottom of the figure. We
7. Draw the two next text boxes as shown on the fig-
will put some of the controls on this form in a moment.
ure (Street and Phone). If you double click the text
In order to align the controls nicely, it is best to show a box icon in the toolbox, the draw tool remains se-
visible grid of dots on the form: lected so that you can draw many text boxes.
(Click Esc to get rid of it.)
2. The property box for the form should be open. If 8. Also draw a spare text box for later experiments
not, double click on the anonymous little square on (Text 6 on the figure).
the form - where the rulers meet.
3. Set the grid dots. The form has a grid of lines. 9. Now make sure the Wizard button is off at the top
They may be spaced as on the figure - a one-cm of the toolbox.
grid. Or with larger cells - a one-inch grid. We also 10. Select the Command Button tool and draw the New
want to see the grid dots. Look at the Format tab guest button. Make it three grid units high to allow
and find the Grid X and Grid Y properties. (They space for the text on the button. Click on the text
are far down the list - you may have to scroll down in the box to change it.
to them). For a one-cm grid, set Grid X=5 and
If you have the Wizard button on, Access will try to
Grid Y=5. For a one-inch grid set Grid X=12 and
make the button do something. (Our mockup has
Grid Y=12. Move the cursor to another property to
nothing to do, so don't use the Wizard.)
make the changes take effect. You should now see
a grid of dots as on the figure. In general, two grid units are a good height for a text
box and three units are suited for a command button.
18 3. Access-based user interfaces

Fig 3.1A Create a Form - a user window
The Form
Controls
Wanted:
Tool-based
mockup
The Forms
(user windows)
of the database Create a Form
List of forms
(empty initially)
Property box for

the Form.
Click for
Form
properties
Toolbox:
Click Text Box control.
Draw a box on the Form.
Set grid size to

5 units per cm .
3. Access-based user interfaces 19

Using the fields try to move and resize the controls with the key-
You may wonder why Access writes unbound inside board, or drag them with the mouse.
all the boxes. It means that the box is not bound to any 9. Undo. You can undo your last operation with the
record in the database. The user may enter something Undo button or Ctrl+Z. But only the last! You can
but it is not automatically stored in the database. Try undo all changes since you last opened the form by
this: closing the form and saying No to saving the
changes. Try it now - you don't want to save the
11. Close the form. Access asks for its name. Call it last adjustments.
frmFindStay. (We use the prefix frm for forms.)
12. Open it again in user mode. It should now look Make sure you see all menu items
like the bottom of Figure 3.1B. This is how the Access 2000 and 2003 have an annoying feature where
user would see the form. it shows only the last menu items you have used. It
13. Try to enter something in the fields. It stays on the makes it difficult to follow the procedures below. Get
screen, but is it persistent data? rid of this feature:
14. Close the form and open it again (in user mode).
All the fields are blank - no data was saved. It was 10. Right-click anywhere in the menus. Select Cus-
just dialog data - not persistent data. Click the tomize->Options. Access 2000: Look at the
command button - nothing happens. It is just a checkbox "Menus show recently used commands
mockup we have made. (In the next chapters we first". Make sure that there is no check mark here.
will add real data and functionality.) Access 2003: Look at the checkbox "Always show
full menus". Make sure there is check mark here.
3.1.2 Adjusting the controls
1. Close the form and open it in design mode. Select The Format menu and the grid
one of the text boxes. Notice the two black han- Open the form in design mode and select a control.
dles, one on the label part and one on the text box. Now look at the Format menu at the top of the Access
2. Moving and sizing. Point the mouse at the label window. There are several things here that can help
handle. The cursor changes to a finger. Try to drag you design the form:
the label part around. The text box itself doesn't
move. Point at the text box handle and use the fin- • Snap to Grid. If you check this box, all controls
ger to drag it around. you draw or move with the mouse will snap to the
3. Point at the border of the text box. The cursor grid in all four corners. If the grid points are
changes to a hand. Drag it - both label and text box closely spaced - more than 9 per cm - Access
should move. doesn't show the grid, but snaps to it anyway.
4. Point at one of the sizing handles in the corners or • Align. You can align the selected controls to the
on the middle of a side. Drag here and the box left, right, etc. or you can align them to the grid.
changes size. Only their top-left point is aligned. They don't
5. Deleting a control. Click on the text box and click change size.
Delete. Oops - both box and label disappeared! • Size. You can change the size of the selected con-
Undo it using the Undo button or Ctrl+Z. trols so that they just fit the data in the control
6. Click on the label part. Notice that now the sizing (matching the chosen font size). Or you can make
handles are on the label part. Click Delete. The la- them fit the grid in all four corners. Finally, you
bel part disappears. can give all the selected controls the same width or
height.
If you want a label without the text box, select the label • Change to ... You can transform the selected con-
tool from the toolbox and draw a label control. trol to another one - with reasonable limitations.
For instance you can turn a text box into a combo
If you want to add a label to a label-less text box, select box or vice versa.
some label, copy it (Ctrl+C), select the text box and
paste the label (Ctrl+V). 3.1.3 Cleaning up the form
You may notice that the form has things in the corners
7. Moving and sizing with the keyboard. Select a that we don't want in the final user window (bottom of
control, then try moving it around with Ctrl+up, Figure 3.1B). The title bar, for instance, holds our pro-
Ctrl+down, etc. Try moving it with Shift+up, etc. grammer-oriented form name, frmFindStay. It should
Now it changes size. This is one way to fine-tune be Find Guest. There are also record selectors, naviga-
the positions and sizes. There is no way to enlarge tion buttons, and space for a scroll bar that we don't
the picture as you can do in Word and many other need in the final window. We can correct all of this by
programs. setting properties of the form:
8. Select several controls at the same time. Either
hold Shift down while clicking on the controls one 11. Make sure the form is open in design mode. Show
by one, or drag a rectangle around them. (All con- the property box for the form (double-click the lit-
trols touching the rectangle will be selected.) Now tle square where the rulers meet).

Fig 3.1B Adjusting controls and the Form
Form name. Access asks for it Handle for moving Handle for moving Drag here to
when you first close the form. Label part . Text Box part . move both.
MinMax buttons
Control Box
Caption
Record
Selector Form View:
User mode
Navigation Underline letter for

Buttons shortcut: &New guest Space for
scroll bar
12. Set these properties on the Format tab: Caption Look and feel - Autoformat
(the form name the user sees), Scroll bars (not You can give the form another look by means of Auto-
needed), Record selector (not needed), Naviga- format. This changes the style, that is the background
tion buttons (not needed). of the form and the appearance of all fields and
buttons. You may try it if you like:
There are other interesting properties on the Format tab
that you may need for other windows: • Open the form in design mode. From the Format
menu at the top of the Access window, select
• Border Style specifies whether the form looks like AutoFormat.
a resizable window, a dialog box or a message • You can choose various auto-formats. Through the
box. Options button you can determine whether you
• Control Box is the buttons on the left and right of want to change also field colors, fonts and borders.
the title bar. You may hide them. When you close the AutoFormat box, the form has
• MinMax buttons and Close button are shown changed its look.
when the control box is shown, but you may dis- • You may also create a new auto-format style based
able them. on one of your forms. Open the form in design
• Picture is none in our case, but you may specify a view. In the AutoFormat box, select Customize ->
picture file to be used as background. Create a new, and give the new AutoFormat a
name. You can then use this auto-format for other
You can get a good explanation of most of the proper- forms.
ties by selecting the property and clicking F1.

3.1.4 Shortcut keys for the user may in some cases be a good way of grouping
In the final system, the user should be able to work controls visually.
without a mouse. An easy way to do this is to assign a 4. Checkbox. Select the checkbox tool and put a
shortcut key for each button and each label. As an checkbox on the form. The checkbox has function-
example, we might want the user to activate New Guest ality and shows a yes/no variable (a Boolean vari-
with Alt+N. Why not do it now? able). You can of course change the value in user
mode. If the variable is undefined - as it is initially
1. Change the name on the button into &New guest. - the checkbox is gray in user mode.
Change to user mode with the little icon in the top
left corner (Figure 3.1C). You should see that the Calendar control. The middle part of Figure 3.1C also
N is underlined. shows a calendar control.
2. Try Alt+N to move the cursor to NewGuest. Try
Tab and Shift+Tab to move between fields. 5. To make room for the calendar control, extend the
grid area of the form by dragging its borders in
3. Add shortcut keys for the other labels too, for in- design mode.
stance as &Last name. Try it out in user mode. 6. Select the lower right icon of the toolbox (the
hammer). It gives access to more controls, most of
What if you want a label with an &, such as them rather complex. Depending on the way
Bed&Breakfast? Access will treat & as a shortcut Access was installed, you can see more or less of
mark. Remedy: Write && instead of &. the many controls. One of them is a Calendar con-
trol.
Tip: Changing mode/view. During design, you fre-
quently change between design mode and user mode. If you cannot see any Calendar control, you may have
The little icon at the top left (Figure 3.1C) allows you to tell Access to look for it. Use Tools -> References.
to toggle between the modes. Click it - you change to You now see a list of the software packages Access
user mode (called Form View in Access). Click it again may look at. Find a Calendar Control and make sure it
- you change to design mode (Design View). has a check mark. Then close the reference list and se-
lect once more the hammer from the toolbox.
The icon has also a menu of views that you can roll
down as shown on the figure. There is one more view, 7. Select the Calendar from the tool list and draw a
Datasheet View, which we will use later. It shows all large rectangle with the tool.
fields of the form as a table.
The Calendar control shows a single date variable. In
Saving. The form is not saved when you change mode. user mode you can click on a date in the calendar and
You can thus experiment easily with the design. Saving in that way store a date in the variable. In principle, the
is not done until you close the form or explicitly save it Calendar control is just a kind of text box with a differ-
with Ctrl+S. ent way of presenting and editing the text value.
Shortcuts. You can change to design mode with DateTime picker. The bottom part of Figure 3.1C
Alt+V+Enter, and to user mode with F5. shows two DateTime pickers. They look like combo
boxes, but when the user clicks the down-arrow, a
calendar appears.
3.1.5 Lines, checkbox, calendar
Above we have tried some of the controls: text box, 8. Extend the grid area further, or remove the
label, and command button. Figure 3.1C shows some calendar control.
other controls you may try now: 9. Select the hammer tool again and look for
Microsoft Date and Time Picker Control. Select it.
1. Line. Select the Line tool from the toolbox and (You may have to include it from Tools ->
draw a line somewhere on the form. The line is Reference, as above.)
just a visual effect. It has no functionality. 10. Draw the combo-box part of the control. You now
2. Rectangle. Select Rectangle from the toolbox and have a control that holds a date-time variable. Try
draw a rectangle around some of the existing con- it out in user mode. Notice how the user can
trols, for instance the left fields. The rectangle is increase or decrease dates and months with arrow
just a visual effect without functionality. up and down.
3. Colors. Double click on the rectangle to open its 11. The control doesn't have label. Give it one: Select
property box. On the format tab, give the rectangle one of the other labels. Copy it (Ctrl+C). Select the
a back color and set back style to normal. Now it date-time control and paste it (Ctrl-V).
hides the controls it surrounds. Use the main 12. Create the other date-time control in the same way
Access menu, Format -> SendToBack, to move it - or copy and paste the first one.
behind the other controls. Experiment with differ- 13. Experiment with the properties of the DateTime
ent back colors, border styles, and border colors. It picker: In design mode, double-click the control. A

Fig 3.1C Form after changes
Select view mode:

Design, Form, Datasheet
Line
(visual effect only)
Shortcut keys
Rectangle
(visual effect only)
Checkbox
control
Calendar
control
DateTimePicker
control
DateTimePicker
drop-down
special DTPicker properties window should Try other changes too, for instance the UpDown
appear. checkbox and the colors.
(You can also get to this special window from Access's 15. We are not going to use this fancy version of the
standard property window: Select the Other-tab and form in the following. If you want to keep it, save
then Custom.) a copy of it: Select the form in the database win-
dow and use copy and paste.
14. Try changing the date format: Select format 3, 16. Delete the line, rectangle, checkbox and calendar
dtpCustom. In the CustomFormat box, define the controls. We don't need them in the following.
format as dd-MM-yyyy. Note that MM means
month, while mm means minute. (See also Figure
6.4B, Format function).

3.1.6 Combo box - enumeration type 7. The Wizard asks you to specify whether the stored
Combo boxes are a bit more complex. We will first value is column one or two. Select column 1 and
make the Include combo box shown on Figure 3.1D. It click Next.
is one of the search criteria for guests, and with some 8. Finally, you may specify the label text in front of
programming it will allow the user to display only the combo box. Use the text Include: (Or modify
booked stays, only canceled stays, etc. the text directly on the Form). Finish the Wizard.
Technically speaking, this combo box holds a value of Look a the result in user mode. It doesn't look quite
enumeration type: right. The drop-down list has two columns and the box
itself shows the number - not the user text. We have to
include(booked | canceled | . . . ) repair this:
In the same way as in the database, the user should see 9. Look at the property box of the combo box. The
the values booked, canceled, etc., but they should be Format tab has a field called Column Widths. It
stored as the values 1, 2, etc. shows the widths of the two columns. Set the
width of the first column to 0 (see the bottom of
1. Switch to design mode. Figure 3.1D).
2. Set the Wizard button on at the top of the toolbox. 10. Try it out in user mode. Everything should look
3. Select the Combo box tool and draw the Include right by now.
box as shown at the top right of the figure. • The Format tab has other interesting fields. You
may for instance adjust the List Width for the drop
The Wizard appears. It works much the same way as down list.
when you defined an enumeration-type field in the
database (section 2.4): 11. Select the Data tab. Row Source holds the values
in the list. You may edit them here.
4. The Wizard asks you whether you want to look up 12. Limit to List defines whether the user is allowed to
the values from a table or type them in yourself. enter other values than those in the list. In this
Select the latter and click Next. case, it should be set to Yes.
5. The Wizard asks you how many columns you
• Bound Column defines which column to use for
want. Choose two: one for the stored value and
the stored value.
one for the value the user should see.
6. Fill in the columns as shown, and click Next.

Fig 3.1D Combo Box - enumeration type
Wanted:
Combo box
Width of first
column = 0

3.1.7 Combo box - table look up Try out the combo box in user mode. It should look all
We will now make the Room type combo box shown right.
on Figure 3.1E. This combo box might be another
sorting criteria. The combo box is not an enumeration The bottom of Figure 3.1E shows the Data tab for the
type where the designer has typed in the values, but a combo box:
table look up. In the example it stores a roomType ID,
but the user will see the name of the room type. • Row Source now contains a formula called an
SQL-expression. It specifies how to compute the
1. Switch to design mode and make sure the Wizard list that the user will see. We will look at SQL-
button is on. expressions in section 4.2.
2. Select the Combo box tool and draw the Room
• Bound Column indicates the column that holds the
Type box.
value to be stored in the table. In our case it is col-
3. Tell the Wizard that you want the combo box to
umn one, which holds roomType.
look up the values in a table. Click Next.
4. Select tblRoomType as the source. Click Next. We won't use these combo boxes later in the booklet.
5. Tell the Wizard that you want to show these fields You may leave them on the form or delete them.
as columns: roomType, description. Click Next.
6. Ask the Wizard to hide the key column. This
means that the key will be stored, but the
description shown to the user. Finish the Wizard.

Fig 3.1E Combo Box - table lookup
Wanted:
Combo box

3.1.8 Control properties - text box • When Locked is Yes, the user cannot enter data
Each control has a lot of properties that define its color, into the text box.
font, and many other things. We will explain some of
these properties below, using the text box as an exam- • When Enabled is Yes, the text box can have the
ple. focus.
Select a text box and look at its property box (Figure When Enabled is No, the user cannot enter any-
3.1F). If the property box isn't open, bring it up by thing in the box because the cursor doesn't stop
double clicking on some control. There are more than there. In this case, Locked has an interesting influ-
60 properties for a text box. Here we will look at some ence on the box color. If Locked is No, the field is
of them. gray. If it is Yes, the color follows the normal pat-
tern determined by Back color and Fore color.
Text box - properties on the Format tab
• Format and decimal places specify the data type Text box - properties on the Other tab
of the control, much the same way as you can • Name is the programmer's name for the text box.
specify the data type for a database field. You can Visual Basic programs refer to the text box with
select among a number of predefined formats, or this name. The designer can change the name. No-
type your own format into the format field. The tice that the name is shown in the title bar too.
formats are similar to the Visual Basic formats
(see section 6.4 and the reference card). • Tab Index determines how the cursor moves
through the controls when the user tabs through
• Scroll Bars. A text box may be large and show a the form. Tab indexes run from 0 and up. When
text consisting of many lines. This property speci- the form opens, the cursor is in the control with tab
fies whether it should have scrollbars. index 0. The tab key moves the cursor though tab
index 0, 1, 2, etc.
• Left, Top, Width, Height specify the position and
size of the control. You may set these properties • ControlTip is the pop-up text the user sees when
instead of dragging with the mouse. the mouse rests on the text box.
• Back color, fore color, font name, etc. specify Label control - properties on the Format tab
colors, borders and other visible properties of the The text box has an associated label. The label has a
control. programmer's name. In the example, Access has given
the label the name Label7.
• Text Align. You can align the text, e.g. left for a
name, right for a number. • Caption is the label text the user sees. In this case
Access generated the caption Text6: The designer
Text box - properties on the Data tab can change it, of course.
• Control Source specifies how the value is com-
puted and where it is stored. For unbound controls Many of these properties exist also for other control
as those on the FindGuest form, control source is types, for instance for the combo box. For the com-
blank. We look at the other possibilities in section mand button, many of them work too. For some strange
3.3. reason, however, you cannot align the text on a com-
mand button. It is always centered. In the hotel system
• Input Mask specifies the text box format when we have made a fake left align by entering spaces after
the box has the focus and the user types into it. the name. You have to enter the spaces directly on the
The mask may for instance be used to enter dates button - you cannot do it in the Caption property.
with predefined slashes and hyphens. The input
mask follows different rules than the format To learn more about a property, click the property line
property. (Not described in this booklet.) and click F1 for help.

Fig 3.1F Control properties - text box
The textbox
Text6
Date, number, Yes/No . . .
For large text fields
Position and size
How data is computed
Can have focus
User can enter data
Name property -
the programmer’s name
Field sequence when the

user tabs through the form
The label for
the textbox
Pop-up help when the
mouse rests on the field
Name property -
the programmer’s name
Caption property -
the user’s name

3.2 Subforms
Figure 3.2A shows the FindGuest form we want to The bottom of Figure 3.2A shows the experimental
construct. The controls at the upper part of the form are version. The main form is frmFindStay, which we
now easy, but how do we handle the list of stays at the made in section 3.1. On it we have made a subform
lower part? Basically we make a field that can show a control - the white area. The list of data is another form
list of data. This field is called a Subform control. The (a continuous form) that shows a list of guest records.
data in the list is a combination of data from tblGuest, On the figure we have shown this continuous form in
tblStay, and other tables. In the next chapter we will two versions: as a form and as a datasheet.
show how to combine these data.
When we have made the subform control and the con-
To simplify matters right now, we will make an ex- tinuous form, it is a simple matter to connect the two.
perimental version of frmFindStay, where the subform The result is a form looking like the final FindGuest.
shows only guest data.
Fig 3.2A Main form and Subform
Final version
Subform
Experimental version
Main form
Subform control
A continuous form in Form view A continuous form in Datasheet view

3.2.1 Subform in Datasheet view 4. Access asks you to select a layout for the form.
First we will make the continuous form that shows the The best layout in our case is Columnar. It will
guest data. We could create it from scratch in the same show the fields with labels. Click Next.
way as we created frmFindStay, but in this case Access
has a Wizard that helps us a lot. Figure 3.2B illustrates It is tempting to choose the datasheet layout rather than
how to use it: columnar. Don't do it. It works, but the fields get no
labels and this makes it much harder to give the fields
1. Start in the database window, click the Forms tab, user-oriented names later in the process.
and select Create form by using Wizard. (In
Access 97 you click New, then select Form 5. The next screen asks you to select a style, meaning
Wizard.) the look of the frames around the fields, the picture
2. Access asks you which table to base the form on. behind the fields, etc. Choose Standard in this case
Choose tblGuest. where we just want a simple look.
3. Select the fields you want to include. In our case, 6. Finally, give the form a name. Choose fsubStay-
select all fields except the guestID field, which the List. The prefix fsub is conventionally used for a
user should not see. Click Next. form that becomes a subform. Click Finish.
Fig 3.2B Create the continuous form
In database window:
Select Forms ->
Create form by using wizard
Base form on
guest table
All fields
exceptguestID
Columnar format:
Fields with labels

You will now see the form in user mode as on Figure Create the subform control
3.2C. You can use PageDown and PageUp to walk Now it is time to use the continuous form as a subform
through the guests. Or you can use the navigation but- on frmFindStay.
tons at the bottom of the form. You may enter data into
the form. The data will end up in the guest table. 11. Open frmFindStay in design view. Extend the grid
area by dragging its borders (see Figure 3.2D).
Choose datasheet view 12. Select the Subform/Subreport tool and draw a large
7. Select the continuous form and use the view icon box as on the figure. The result is a subform con-
to change to Datasheet View. Adjust the width of trol. Delete the label for the subform control
the form and the widths of the columns. The result (called Child7 or the like).
should be as on the lower part of Figure 3.2C. 13. Look at the property box for the subform control.
Set the name property on the Other tab: Name =
When we insert the continuous form into the Find subStayList. The prefix sub is used for subform
Guest form, we want it to be shown only as a datasheet. controls.
Specify it in this way:
Connect the continuous form to the subform control
8. Select the continuous form and switch to design 14. Look at the Data tab for the subform control. Set
view. Open the property box of the form and select this property: Source Object = fsubStayList (select
the Format tab. Set Default View to Datasheet. it from the drop-down list).
Access 2000: Also set Views Allowed to Da- 15. Switch to Form View.
tasheet. Access 2003: Disallow Form View and
allow Datasheet View. The result should be as shown at the bottom of Figure
3.2D. The result is not pretty, but is easy to correct the
Bound and unbound forms problems. Notice the names we use:
9. Use the opportunity to look at the Data tab for the
form properties. It shows that Record Source is • Name of the Subform control: subStayList
tblGuest. This is why the form can show fields • Name of the Continuous form: fsubStayList (seen
from the guest table. We say that fsubStayList is in the Access database window)
bound to tblGuest.
10. Switch to Datasheet view to check that everything
is okay. Then close the continuous form.

Fig 3.2C Continuous form
Continuous
form in Form view
Adjust dividing lines.

Navigation Drag or double-click
Buttons heading line
In Datasheet
view
Fig 3.2D Creating and connecting the subform control
Draw a subform
control
Name property:
Connect to fsubStayList Other -> Name = subStayList
Result in
Datasheet view

3.2.2 Adjust the subform Add another field
To make the subform look nicer, we remove the navi- What to do if you have forgotten one of the fields on
gation buttons at the bottom, give the columns user- the subform? Starting all over with the Wizard is
oriented names, etc. (See Figure 3.2E.) cumbersome. The solution is to use the Field List to
add the missing field:
1. Open fsubStayList in design mode. Open the prop-
erty box for the form and set Navigation Buttons to • Switch to design view. Click the Field List icon on
No. the tool bar (Figure 3.2E). All fields from the
2. Remove the unnecessary fields address2, address3 record source come up as a list.
and passport. (Select them and click Delete.)
3. Change the labels to user-oriented names. (Click • Drag the missing field from the list to the form.
the label and change the text on the spot.)
4. Close fsubStayList and open the main form in user Adjust lookup fields
mode. It should look like Figure 3.2E. When the field is defined as a lookup field in the
database, it becomes a combo box on the form. This is
Notice that the labels are used as column headings. usually fine, except for the fact that in the database we
You may wonder what happens if we have a text box wanted the visible value to be the real thing stored in
without a label. In this case the control name (the Vis- the database, for instance the code 2 for Visa. This was
ual Basic name) is used as a heading. You may change convenient when we as designers entered test data into
the control name to a user-oriented name, but it is the database.
harder and would influence a program that addresses
the text box. On the user interface we don't want the user to see the
codes, but the mnemonic values, for instance Visa.
5. Adjust column widths. The user can adjust the Here is how to do it:
column widths. Try it: Point the mouse to a divid-
ing line in the header section (see Figure 3.2E). • Open the property box for the combo box. On the
Drag the dividing line to adjust the column width. Format tab, look at Column Widths. Set the first
Double-click the dividing line to have Access fit column width to 0. This makes this column
the line to the existing data. The column widths are invisible to the user.
persistent data that are stored as part of fsubStay-
List. Font size for datasheets. The datasheets in the booklet
6. Column sequence. The user can also adjust the use font size 8 (default is 10). You can set size 8 as the
column sequence: Click the column heading to default font size. Select Tools -> Options -> Datasheet
mark the entire column. Then drag the entire -> Default Font -> Size = 8. This setting will influence
column to another position in the sheet. The all datasheets where you haven't set the font size
column sequence is also persistent data. explicitly.
7. Sorting rows. The user may ask for the data rows
to be sorted according to a specific column: Right-
click somewhere in the column and choose Sort
Ascending or Sort Descending. The sorting se- How to open the continuous form in design mode:
quence is also persistent data. Access records the You may simply open the continuous form from the
sorting sequence as the Order By property of the database window. However, you may also access it
form. from the main form in design view:
Access 2000 and 2003: When the main form is in de-

sign mode, the subform control will usually also show
the continuous form. You may click and adjust the
controls directly inside the subform control.
Access 97: When the main form is in design mode, the

subform field is always blank. Click in the form out-
side any control. Next double-click the subform con-
trol. The continuous form will then open in design
mode.

Fig 3.2E Adjusting the subform
Remove navigation
buttons through
property box
Delete unneccesary
fields
Change labels to
user-oriented names
Drag to
form
Field List for

adding more fields
Adjust dividing lines. Reorder columns:

Drag or double-click heading line Mark column + drag and drop

3.2.3 Mockup subform 3.2.4 Subform in Form view
Above we have based our experimental subform on A continuous form can also be shown in Form view.
tblGuest rather than a complex computation of the real This gives us more freedom to structure the data pres-
stay list. This was to try the mechanisms - it looks all entation. As an example, we will create a subform that
wrong to the user. When we make a tool-based mockup makes Find Guest look like Figure 3.2G. The subform
for usability testing, we need the planned columns, but area now shows a heading area and a list of small
the data fields should be empty because we add the forms - the details. Here is how to do it:
data with pencil.
1. Make another copy of fsubStayList (Ctrl+C and
The easiest way to make such a mockup is to start with Ctrl+V). Give the copy the name fsubStayList2.
any continuous form and add dummy text boxes. We
will use this technique to create a mockup list of rooms 2. Open the copy in Design view and drag the border
occupied by a guest (Figure 3.2F). (We will later use between header and footer so that you see a header
this form in the Stay window.) When filled in with area (Figure 3.2G). If you cannot see the Form
pencil, the list shows the first night, the number of Header bar, use the View menu:
nights, the room number, the number of persons in the View -> Form Header/Footer.
room, the price per night, and the total for all the
nights. 3. Change the form so it looks like Figure 3.2G:
Remove the labels from the detail area and
1. Make a copy of fsubStayList: In the database win- adjust the sizes of the three fields as shown.
dow, select fsubStayList, copy it with Ctrl+C and Adjust the size of the detail area to remove
paste it with Ctrl+V. Give the copy the name fsub- empty space at the bottom.
StayRooms. Draw fresh labels in the header area.
2. Open fsubStayRooms in design mode. Remove all At this point, the user can only see the form in Da-
fields relating to the guest and insert text boxes as tasheet view. Change this:
shown. Give the labels the user-oriented names.
4. On the property sheet for the form, set Default
3. Change the caption of the form, for instance to Views to Continuous Forms and Views Allowed
RoomList. to Form.
4. Switch to Datasheet mode, and the mockup should In user mode you will now see the continuous form as
be ready. a list of small forms. You may connect it to the main
form to get the wanted result: Change the SourceObject
How does this work? The subform is bound to tblGuest property of the subform control.
and shows a line for each guest. However, the line
doesn't show any guest fields, only the text boxes we Form Wizard - tabular layout
have added. These text boxes are only dialog data. It is a bit cumbersome to construct the continuous form
They don't store anything in the database. If you for in this way. You may let the Form Wizard do some of
instance enter a number in Nights, you will see the the job:
same number in all the lines. There is only one instance
of the dialog data. 5. From the database window, click the Forms tab
and select Create Form by using Wizard.
If you want more lines in the mockup, add new guests 6. Select the proper table, next select Tabular layout.
to tblGuest. The mockup shows one line for each guest. 7. Finally select a style (e.g. Standard) and give the
form a name.
Insert a table directly as a subform?
Access 2000 and 2003 allow you to connect a subform You will now have a form that looks very much like
control to a table - without making a continuous form. the one you constructed above.
Don't use this shortcut.
The result looks okay at first sight, but you have no

control of the appearance. You cannot remove naviga-
tion buttons, use colors in the fields, or address the
user's selection from a Visual Basic program.

Fig 3.2F Mockup subform: Roomlist for a guest
Wanted:
Tool-based
mockup list
Make a copy of fsubStayList

Call it fsubRoomListMockup
Delete all
guest fields
Add unbound textboxes

Give them user oriented labels
Switch to Datasheet view

- the mockup is ready
Fig 3.2G Subform in Form view
Wanted: Subform
in Form view
Header
Details
Make a copy of
fsubStayList
Call it fsubStayList2
Drag Detail down to Header

make a Form Header
Detail
Delete labels from detail area.
Adjust fields. Add labels to
the header

3.2.5 Summary of subforms Each subform control may be connected to a con-
tinuous form. The continuous form can be shown in
Datasheet view or form view? Form view. Then it has a form header and a list of de-
Datasheets and forms not only look different. They tail forms. The continuous form can also be shown in
have other usability differences too. Datasheet view. Then it looks like a table.
Datasheet view allows cursor movements in all direc- Properties. The following properties (attributes) are
tions as in a spreadsheet. It also allows the user to se- important to understand when you work with subforms.
lect a rectangle of cells. The Visual Basic program can Figure 3.2H shows examples of these properties.
find out which cells the user has selected.
Main form: The Name property is the designer's form
The weakness is that the display format is very rename. It is this form name you see in the data-
stricted. Each record is shown as a single line with text base window. You can only change the name
boxes, combo boxes, etc. Also the column headings are there. The Caption property is the name the
very restricted. They are just simple texts and they user sees in the title bar of the form. You can set
cannot even be empty. the caption through the Format tab in the prop-
erty box.
Form view allows all the available display formats,
including pictures retrieved from a database. (There Subform control: The Name is the designer's name of
cannot, however, be continuous forms inside another the control. A program would use this name to
continuous form. Continuous forms can only be used in address the control. You can set the name prop-
one level.) erty through the Other tab in the property box.
The SourceObject indicates the continuous
The weakness of forms is that the cursor moves less form connected to the subform control.
intuitively. The user can tab through the fields of each
record, but not easily move up and down the list of re- Continuous form: The Name is the form name that you
cords. Furthermore, the user can only select a full see in the database window. Record Source in-
record, not part of a record. dicates the table bound to the form. Default
View indicates whether the form is shown as a
Current record. A subform can show many records at datasheet or as detail forms with a header. An-
the same time, but only one of them is the current other property, Views Allowed, indicates
record. It is marked with the little arrow to the left, the whether the user can change from one view to
record selector, as shown on Figure 3.2H. (You may another.
change the form settings so that the record selector area
is invisible.) 3.2.6 Prefixes
A prefix is a few letters before a name. The prefix
When the user types something into the form, it will helps the reader understand what this name is about. Is
always be into the current record. When the cursor it the name of a table, a form, etc? In just slightly
moves into another record, it becomes current. complex systems, prefixes are crucial to help the
developers. The bottom of Figure 3.2H shows the full
Until now we have only seen a main form that is not list of prefixes used in this booklet. For subforms the
bound to the database. But main forms may be bound following are important:
too. Then they have a current record and they need the
record selector (see examples in section 4.7). tbl Table names.
frm Names of main forms.
The subform concepts sub Names of subform controls.
Figure 3.2H gives a summary of the many subform fsub Names of continuous forms connected to a sub-
concepts we have used above. A main form is a user form control.
window with title bar, etc. It may contain one or more
subform controls.

Fig 3.2H Summary of subform concepts
Main form:
Name = frmFindStay
Caption = Find Guest
Main form Subform control:

Name = subStayList
SourceObject = fsubStayList
Continuous form:
Name = fsubStayList
Subform control Record Source = tblGuest
Default View = Continuous Forms
Views Allowed = Both
Current
record
Continuous form
in Form view
Continuous form
in Datasheet view
Table behind the

continuous form
Control prefixes:
cbo Combobox control.
chk Checkbox control.
cmd Command button
ctl Other type of control
grp Option group
lbl Label
mni Menu item
lst Listbox
opt Option button
sub Subform control
tgl Toggle button
txt Text control
Other prefixes:
bas Module (used by VBA)
frm Main form.
fsub Continuous form (connected to a subform control).
qry Query
qxtb Crosstab query
tbl Table

3.3 Bound, unbound and computed controls
A form may be bound to a table. In this case its Computed control
controls can be bound to fields of the table, so that the 7. Combine two database fields. A text box may be
user can see the fields and update them through the computed from database fields. Try it with the
control. As an example, fsubStayList was bound to the address text box. Set its ControlSource to this ex-
guest table, and we could see and update the guest data. pression
In this section we will look at this in more detail. We = phone & address2
will explicitly bind controls and let controls be com- (Make sure to type the equal sign too.)
puted from multiple fields.
The equal sign changes the checkbox to a computed
Unbound control in a bound form control. The & is the concatenation operator. We have
1. Open fsubStayList2 in design mode. asked Access to concatenate the two guest fields and
2. Select the checkbox tool and add a checkbox to the show them as a single text. Check in user mode that
detail form as shown on Figure 3.3A. this is what you get. However, now you cannot enter
3. Switch to user mode. There will be a checkbox in anything in the address text box - Access has no place
each detail form, but all of them will be gray. The to store what you enter.
reason is that the checkbox has not got any value
yet. On Figure 3.3A we have made the combined field look
4. Click the checkbox so that it shows a tick. Move to a bit better with a comma and a space between the two
the next record. All the checkboxes have now got a parts. As shown on the figure, we have concatenated
tick. Click to remove the tick. It disappears from the control source from three parts, the phone field, a
all the checkboxes. text constant holding the comma and a space, and the
address2 field:
As we added the checkbox, it became an unbound = phone & ", " & address2
control. The Yes/No value is not stored in the database, Don't worry about the square brackets on the figure.
but it is a single dialog variable in the form. All the Access often adds them as a parenthesis around names
checkboxes show this single variable and thus show the in order to deal with names that contain spaces, # and
same. If you close and open fsubStayList2, the dialog other strange characters.
variables disappear and are created again. The check-
boxes are gray again. Troublesome expressions
Sometimes an expression may give strange results be-
Bound control cause the expression happens to refer to something you
5. Show fsubStayList2 in design mode. Set this prop- didn't anticipate. Here are some examples.
erty for the checkbox:
Data -> ControlSource = passport 8. Self-reference. Concatenating phone and address
(choose the field from the list). Change to user is just an experiment. It is more useful to concate-
mode. nate address1 and address2. Try to enter this con-
trol source in the address text box:
This action binds the checkbox control to the passport = address1 & ", " & address2
field in tblGuest. The first form instance shows data
from the first record in tblGuest, the second instance Access doesn't give you an error message, but in user
shows data from the second record, etc. You can bind mode you will see the text #Error rather than the guest
the control to any field in tblGuest no matter whether it data. This highly user-friendly message (;-) is in this
was included when the Wizard generated the form. case caused by a self-reference:
In user mode, the checkboxes still look gray but that is Notice that the programmer name for the address text
because they try to show the passport fields. A box is address1 - exactly the same as the name of the
checkbox can show a Yes/No value or a number (with database field. Access assumes that we want to con-
zero shown as No). The passport fields are either blank catenate the address1 text box and the address2 field. In
or contain a text, and the checkbox doesn't know what order to do this, Access has to compute the address1
to show. text box, but this means concatenating address1 and
address2 once again. The computation would never
6. Try to check and uncheck some of the boxes. stop and Access shows it with #Error.
Notice that they are independent of each other. The
Yes/No value is stored in the passport field of 9. Repair self-reference. In order to repair the
tblGuest. Look at the table contents. Notice that problem, give the address1 text box another pro-
Yes is stored as -1, No as 0. (Sorry if some of the grammer name. On the Other tab, replace the
real passport numbers disappeared.) name address1 with Address. In user mode, the
form should now look as the last form on Figure
3.3A.

Fig 3.3A Bound and unbound controls
Add a checkbox
to the detail form.
As an experiment,
bind it to the passport field
Set Control Source to combine

two guest fields into one.
Result in user mode
Final result: Two address lines in one
Let us look at another troublesome problem: To avoid the problem, precede the name with a bang
operator (!):
10. Referring to a built-in property. Let us try to = !name & ", " & address2
concatenate the guest name with address2. Change
the text box control source to: The bang operator tells Access that you want a control
= name & ", " & address2 or a database field - not a built-in property. We will
discuss this a lot more in section 5.1.
In user mode, you will see that you don't get the name
of the guest, but the name of the form itself! The rea- 11. Name mistake. Try to use a non-existing name in
son is that a form has a Name property, and this is what the control source:
you referred to. Notice that Access changed the name = zz & address2
you typed to [Name]. This is a sign that Access recog-
nized the name as something spelled with a capital N - Access doesn't give you an error message, but in user
in this case a property name. mode you will see the text #Name? instead of the guest
data.

3.3.1 Showing subform fields in the main Value-dependent color
form In Access 2000 and 2003 there is a primitive way to
In Access 97 and 2000 you may also let a field in the deal with variable colors. We can for instance let a
main form draw on data in the subform. Figure 3.3B number be green in the range 0 to 49, yellow in the
shows an example. We let a text box show a field from range 50 to 69, and red otherwise. Or we could let a
the subform. Try it in this way: text be yellow in the alphabetical range from H to P,
and red above it. Try it:
1. Open frmFindStay in design mode and select the
spare text box (Text6 on the figure). Set its control 2. Open fsubStayList in any mode, for instance Da-
source to tasheet view to get a good overview of the records.
= subStayList ! name 3. Select the Guest name (the name control). Use the
(Remember the equal sign.) Format menu at the top of the Access window and
This tells Access to look into the subform control select Conditional Formatting.
to find the field name. Switch to user mode. 4. Set up the conditional formatting as shown on Fig-
ure 3.3C. Specify yellow background for the range
The spare text box should now show the guest name "h" to "p" and red from "p" and up. You can add or
from the currently selected record. Try selecting differ- delete conditions by means of the Add and Delete
ent records to see that the text box is updated automati- buttons at the bottom.
cally. 5. Close the conditional formatting box and check
that the colors are as expected. You may also try to
Detail area. This approach can be useful if you want to enter new guests to check how the ranges work in
show details of the selected record. You might for in- detail.
stance set off an area of the main form for details of the
selected record. The area might show several fields The variable colors work in datasheet view as well as
from the selected record. form view. The colors do not show in the table behind
the form (tblGuest).
Unfortunately, in Access 2003 this doesn't work
automatically. You can set the control sources, but Default colors. At the top of the Conditional Format-
Access doesn't update the fields automatically. You ting box, you can set the default color for the control.
have to do some programming to update the fields. You can also set it through the Back Color property on
the Format tab. However, this only defines the default
Other expressions color in form view. In datasheet view, the default color
You can use a wide range of operators and functions to is defined by datasheet settings (use the main menu:
compute the control value, such as Format -> Datasheet and Format -> Font).
+, -, *, Sin( ), IIf( )
The rules correspond to what you can write in Visual Expression-dependent color
Basic, and they are similar to those you find in other You may also let the color of one field depend on the
programming languages. See section 6.4 for the values of other fields. As an example, we could let the
detailed rules. color of the Address control depend on the Guest
name. You might try this:
In practice, you will rarely use complex expressions in
the controls. Complex computations are usually done 6. Select the Address control (initially named
either as part of computing a table with an SQL query, address1) and select conditional formatting.
or as part of a Visual Basic program. 7. For Condition 1, select Expression Is. Then select
a background color and specify this expression for
3.3.2 Variable colors - conditional the background color to be used:
!name > "h"
formatting
You can determine the colors and other format aspects When you close the conditional formatting window, all
of a control through the Format tab of the property box. guests with names after H should have the new back-
For instance you can set Back Color of Guest to ground color for the address, but they don't! The reason
something different than white. However, the back is that conditional formatting doesn't address fields in
color will be the same in every detail form. the same way as the control source property (I would
call this a bug in Access). You have to use a more
Sometimes you can vastly improve the user interface
elaborate expression:
by showing critical data in color. This means that only
some of the detail records will have a colored control. 8. Use the full address for the field
It might be tempting to do this by using an expression Forms ! fsubStayList ! name > "h"
for Back Color, but this is not possible. Before Access
2000 it was actually completely impossible to have The full address tells Access to look for a form called
variable colors in continuous forms. fsubStayList and find the name control in it. This

Fig 3.3B Showing subform fields in the main form
Set Control Source to show

name of selected guest.
Textbox
Textbox
automatically
automatically
reflects
reflects the
the current
current selection.
selection.
Access 97 and 2000 only
Fig 3.3C Variable colors
Select Guest field.

Main menu:
Format -> Conditional Formatting
Specify condition and

new background color.
should work correctly when you close the formatting more elaborate address to tell Access that it is a sub-
box. (In some cases Access shows an error message form of frmFindStay we talk about. The address to be
saying that it cannot find the Forms field. Ignore it, the used is
formula works anyway.)
Forms ! frmFindStay ! subStayList !name > "h"
Unfortunately, this full address works only when we
see fsubStayList separately, but not when we see it as a We will explain a lot more about these addresses in
subform of frmFindStay. We will have to use an even section 5.1.

3.4 Tab controls and option groups
Tab controls 9. Select the second tab page and give it the caption
When space is insufficient on the form, a tab control is Services. If you like, you can insert subforms and
a way out. The property box in Access and the option other controls on this tab too, similar to the Rooms
window in many MS-Windows programs use tab con- tab.
trols to put ever more fields on a single window. 10. Give the Stay form a caption. Close it and give it
the name frmStay.
Figure 3.4 shows how we use a tab control in the hotel
system. The Stay window shows all details of a stay (a Warning: It may be tempting to draw a control on the
booking). It contains one tab control with two tab main form and then drag it to the tab pages. On the
pages. The first tab page shows the rooms booked or screen it may look right, but it isn't. The control sticks
occupied by the guest. The second tab page shows the to the main form and may be either in front of all the
services received, for instance breakfast. Try to make tab pages or behind all of them. You may, however,
the essential parts of this form: copy a control from the main form, select the tab page,
and then paste the control there. When you click the
1. Create a new form from the database window's various tab pages, you see that it sticks to the right
Form tab (use Create form in Design view). Re- page.
member to set the grid size so that the grid is visi-
ble. Option groups
2. Add the Stay No. field to the form (to be used for If the user has to choose between a few options, it is
stayID later), but don't care to add all the other traditional to show them as an option group with radio
fields. buttons (called option buttons in Access). The bottom
3. Extend the grid area. Select the Tab-control tool of Figure 3.4 shows an example where the user can
from the toolbox and draw a large rectangle on the choose the paymethod with radio buttons.
form.
An option group is in some ways similar to a tab con-
You now get three new controls on the form: the tab trol. It is a control that contains other controls. How-
control and two tab pages in it. When you click in the ever, an option group is just an elaborate way of
empty area to the right of the tabs, you select the entire showing a single integer value. The current value de-
tab control. If you click on one of the tabs, you select termines which radio button has a dot. In our example
this particular tab page. this integer would be the paymethod. Make the option
group in this way:
How to add further tab pages to the control? You right-
click the tab and select Insert Page. In the hotel sys- 11. In design mode, choose the Option group tool
tem, two pages are enough. We need a subform on each from the toolbox. Make sure the Wizard is off.
of the two tab pages. Proceed like this: Draw a rectangle like the one on the figure.
12. You have now got the control and its label. The
4. Select the first tab page. In its property box, enter label is shown across the top border. You can drag
the caption Rooms. them around exactly as text boxes. Change the la-
5. Make sure the tab-page is selected and not the en- bel to Paymethod.
tire tab control. Select the subform tool from the 13. Select the Option button tool from the toolbox.
toolbox and draw a subform on the tab page. Drag a rectangle where the option button and its
6. Select the text box tool from the toolbox and draw label will be - or just click at the top left corner of
the two fields for totals on the tab page. this rectangle. Draw four option buttons.
7. Also add the last total field (Total rooms and 14. Change the labels for the options to Cash, Visa,
services till now). Note that it must be below the etc.
tab control. In design mode, the form should now
look like the right part of Figure 3.4. Look at the result in user mode. The buttons are all
8. Connect the mockup room list to the first tab page gray. Why? Because the control has no value - it can-
in this way. Select the subform control and set its not choose which button to give a dot. Remedy? Click
SourceObject property to fsubStayRooms. (You in one of the buttons. If you click the first button, the
created this subform in section 3.2.3.) In user control will get the value 1. If you click the second one,
mode, the form should now look like the left part it becomes 2, etc.
of Figure 3.4.

Fig 3.4 Tab control and Option group
Wanted
Select entire Tab control
Select one of the tab pages.

Option group.
Command Draw controls on it - or copy
Draw on form. and paste.
Add Option
buttons. Select Tab control.
DrawCommand
on form.

3.5 Menus
In Access a form cannot have menus. Only the big are commands. They do the real work when selected.
Access window can have menus, but they can change Some of the menu items may be second-level menu
according to which form is in focus. headings. They open another menu list when selected,
and this is how we make multi-level menus. Access
Before we start implementing the hotel menu, we need uses the word command for the real commands as well
some terminology. Figure 3.5A shows what we are as the lower-level menu headings.
talking about. Initially, the Access window has a menu
bar and one or more tool bars. Access uses the com- 3.5.1 Create a new menu bar
mon term toolbar for menu bars as well as real tool- You can make menus whether in design mode or user
bars. The toolbar concept also covers the free-floating mode.
toolbars, called toolboxes, and shortcut menus that pop
up when you right click on a control. In a moment we 1. Right-click any point on the existing menus and
will add another menu bar to be used by the hotel select Customize. (Or use Tools -> Customize).
system. You now get the customize window as shown on
Figure 3.5A.
Each menu bar has one or more menus. A menu con- 2. On the Toolbars tab, click the New button. Access
sists of a menu heading - the one we see on the menu asks for the name of the new toolbar. Call it Hotel
bar - and the menu list that drops down when you select - the name the user will see if he chooses the tool-
the menu heading. bar with the View menu. Click OK, and up comes
a tiny menu bar - floating in the universe.
The menu list contains the menu items. Most of them 3. Click the Properties button in the Customize win-
Fig 3.5A Create a new menu bar
Menu bar
New menu bar: Hotel
Tool bar
Menu:
Menu heading in the menu bar. Right-click.
Menu list that drops down Command Select Customize
(menu item)
Create a new
toolbar/menubar.
Name it Hotel
Make it a
menubar
DragCommand
it to the
menubar/toolbar area.
Checked toolbars
shown as default

dow and set the Type of the new toolbar to Menu already are in the various toolbars - but also add new
Bar. Close the properties window. menu items. All these menu items are grouped accord-
ing to categories. For most commands you can get a
The type of the toolbar determines where it is shown. If short description by selecting the command and click-
it is a Menu Bar, it will be shown at the top with any ing the Description button.
other menu bar. If it is a Toolbar, it will be shown be-
low the menu bars. 6. Go to the bottom of the category list and select
New Menu. This category consists of only one
4. The new menu bar is still floating in the universe. command - a new menu. Select this New Menu
Drag it to the fellow tool bars in the top of the command and drag it to the new menu bar. Since
Access window. we want several menus on the menu bar, drag it a
couple of times. The toolbar area should now look
The menu bar area should now look like the bottom of like the one on Figure 3.5B.
Figure 3.5A. The new menu bar looks very empty be- 7. Keep the Customize window open and right-click
cause it has no menus. each of the new menus to give it a name. For the
hotel system, use the names &Rooms, &Stays and
Add menus to the menu bar &Breakfast. The &-sign shows that the following
5. Select the Commands tab in the Customize win- letter is to be underlined and used as a shortcut
dow (see Figure 3.5B). (e.g. Alt+S for Stays).
This Command tab is really confusing. It allows you to
choose between a lot of built-in menu items - those that
Fig 3.5B Add menus to the menubar
DragCommand
new menu headings
to the toolbar.
Right-click and
Command
give it a name.

3.5.2 Add commands to the menu list erty box, select the Other tab. Set the Menu Bar
As an example, we will add two commands to the Stays property to Hotel and close the form.
menu: One that opens the FindStay screen and one that
cancels (deletes) a stay. When you now open frmFindStay in user mode, the
Hotel menu will be visible and it will have replaced
1. Select the Commands tab in the customize window Access's standard menu. Open frmStay too and switch
and the category All Forms (Figure 3.5C). the focus back and forth between the two forms. The
menus will change accordingly.
This category gives access to commands that open an
existing form. You see the existing forms to the right. If you like, you can make another toolbar and give it
the type Toolbar. Then attach it to frmStay through the
2. Select frmFindStay and drag this command to the Other-tab, but make it the Toolbar of frmStay rather
Stays menu heading. Wait a moment for the Stays than the Menu Bar. Open both forms in user mode and
menu to unfold so that you can place the command switch the focus back and forth. Notice that when
on the menu list. frmStay is in focus, its toolbar overwrites Access's
3. Right-click the command and give it the name standard toolbar. When frmFindStay is in focus, its
Show FindGuest screen and the style Text Only. menu bar overwrites Access's standard menu bar.
The right-click allows you to do many other things to 3.5.4 Startup settings - hiding developer
this command. You can assign an icon to it and edit the stuff
icon. (This is more useful when you design toolbars When the system is finished, the user should not see all
and toolboxes rather than menu bars.) If you click the Access menus, the database window for selecting
Properties at the bottom of the list, you can determine and creating forms, etc. It may be necessary to hide all
which action the command shall perform when se- of this already in the mockup. Here is how to do it:
lected. In our case, we use the built-in action Open a
form. 9. Select Tools->Startup. You now see the startup
settings (Figure 3.5D).
Add the CancelStay command 10. Change these settings: Application Title = Hotel
4. Select the category File and the command Custom. system (the user sees this name in the title bar in-
(This is the only command that doesn't build on an stead of the name Access). Menu bar = Hotel (the
existing command.) Drag this command to the user sees this menu at the top of the screen). Dis-
Stays menu and position it properly relative to the play Form/page = frmFindStay (the user sees this
other command on the menu. form on the screen initially).
5. Right-click the command and set its name to 11. Hide the standard things: Full menus and Database
Cancel Stay. window.
The Custom command has no built-in action. In its This will give the correct view for a mockup. When
property box, we will later add a call to a Visual Basic you later have a functional system, you should disable
function (section 5.7) that cancels the stay. most other things too, for instance built-in shortcut
menus (right-click menus) and special keys, for in-
6. Close the Customize window and try out the com-
stance F11 to open the database window.
mands. The ShowFindGuest command should ac-
tually work, while the CancelStay does nothing at 12. Close the database and open it again. You should
present. now see the naked application window with only
the FindStay window and the hotel menu.
You may add all the other menus and commands at this
stage to complete the mockup, but better spend your Help! How do you get it back to normal so that you
time doing it for your own design project. can work as a developer? You cannot even change the
startup settings anymore. Of course there is a solution:
3.5.3 Attach the toolbar to a form
You can attach a toolbar to a form so that it is shown 13. Close the hotel system window again. Now hold
only when this form is in focus. down Shift while you open it. Keep Shift down
until it is completely open. (In Access 2003 this
7. First hide the Hotel menu: Right click any toolbar includes answering about unsafe files.)
to open the customize window. On the Toolbars
tab, find the Hotel menu at the end of the list. Re- The window looks again the developer way, and you
move the check mark and close Customize. can change the startup settings. You might leave them
in the final user version and remember to use Shift
8. The Hotel menu is not visible anymore. Now open every time you are working as a developer. My experi-
frmFindStay in Design view. In the form's prop- ence is that this is too cumbersome and you forget

Fig 3.5C Add commands to the menu list
DragCommand
new command
to the menu (wait a moment
for the menu list to drop down).
Right-click and
Command
give it a name.
Define style.
See short explanation

of the command.
Fig 3.5D Startup settings for hiding developer stuff
Initial Name shown in The menu shown The startup form

Access title bar
settings
Hide other menus Hide database window
about the Shift too often. I always set them back when
I have tried it out.

3.6 Control tips, messages, mockup prints
Control tips - pop-up help the message box wide enough. We print out the mes-
In the final system we can add Control Tips - the small sage box, copy it and fill in the message text by hand.
texts that pop up when the mouse rests a moment on a
button or another control (Figure 3.6). We can make 6. Enter the first line shown in the Immediate win-
them in the tool-based mockup, cut them out, and show dow:
them to the user as stickers. Let us make a control tip msgbox " ", vbYesNo+vbInformation
for the Find guest button on frmFindStay:
As soon as you click Enter, Visual Basic will execute
1. Open frmFindStay in design mode. Click on the the statement and show the message box. Print it at this
NewGuest button to open its property box. stage (see below). Then play the user's role and answer
2. On the Other tab, enter the ControlTip text. There Yes.
is little space to type in, so use Shift+F2 to open a
larger window to type in. You may want to split 7. Do the same for the next three lines in the Imme-
the text into two or more lines - oops - the window diate window. This gives you a sample of the four
closes! Use Ctrl+Enter to change line. basic types of messages in MS Windows.
3. Switch to user mode and check that the control tip
The strange words vbYesNo etc. are named constants.
works.
Actually, vbYesNo is 4 and vbInformation is 64. When
you add them together, Visual basic can see that you
Messages want a Yes and a No button, plus the icon for an In-
The final system will have many messages to show to
formation message.
the user in various circumstances. They will be deeply
embedded in the Visual Basic program, but when using VBA guides. Visual Basic can guide you while you
the mockup for usability tests, the facilitator has to type in the statement. If it doesn't do it by itself, type
bring them up as stickers. So at this stage we have to Ctrl+I after the function name. It will then show the
generate them on the screen and then print them out. parameters you may type. After the first comma, type
Ctrl+Shift+J and it will show a list of the possible con-
Figure 3.6 shows the easiest way to do it. It works both
stants at this point. You may select a constant from the
in design mode and user mode.
list and use Tab to insert it in the statement.
4. Open the Immediate window with Ctrl+G. (Also
Leave Visual Basic. How do you get out of Visual
called the Debug window.)
Basic and back to the Access world? Simply close the
5. If you work in Access 2000 or 2003, this also
Visual Basic window. This doesn't close the database
opens the Visual Basic window where you can
window.
program. Make the Visual Basic window smaller
than the full screen (use the restore button next to
the cross that closes the window).
Printing the screens
Above we have developed the mockup so that the right
Immediate window. The Immediate window is also things appear on the screen. How do you get them on
called the debug window. In it you can type Visual Ba- paper for use as mockups in usability testing? In the
sic statements and have them executed immediately. standard installation of MS-Windows and MS-Office
there is only one way as far as I know:
MsgBox. We will use the MsgBox function. It has
many parameters, but in most cases we just use the first 8. Press Alt+PrtSc (Print Screen). This copies the
two: currently selected large window (the entire Access
window) to the clipboard.
MsgBox "the message text to show",
the buttons to show + the icon to use When you have selected a message box, Alt+PrtSc
copies only this box to the clipboard.
For our mockup we won't even care about the message
text. We just show it as a very long empty text to make 9. Paste it into a Word document.

Fig 3.6 Messages and control tips
Select New guest in Design mode.

Define ControlTip text.
Use Shift+F2 for long texts
To show a message box:

Enter the Visual Basic world
with Ctrl+G (debugger)
Type these commands.
In the document, you now see a copy of the entire win- You can add as many screen parts to the Word docu-
dow (or the message box). For mockup purposes, you ment as you like. Then print it and your mockup is al-
will only need a small part of the entire window. Crop most ready. What remains is to copy pages, trim mes-
away the unnecessary parts as follows: sage boxes and control tips with scissors, and write
data in the various windows. Usually it is best to en-
10. In the Word document, select the screen picture. If large the screens when you copy them.
necessary, open the Picture toolbox (View ->
Toolbars -> Picture). This works but is very cumbersome, and it is almost
11. Select the Crop tool from the picture toolbox. impossible to crop away exactly the right amount.
12. Crop the picture so that you only have the neces- Further, the document becomes a huge file due to all
sary part left. the large screen dumps (they are there in full size even
if you have cropped most of them away).
Copy a menu. With this approach you cannot copy a
drop-down menu, because it rolls up when you press For professional use, get a screen grabber (a screen
Alt. To copy a drop-down menu, you have to use Print capture tool). There are freeware screen grabbers avail-
Screen without Alt. This copies the entire screen to the able that work very well. These tools help you copy
clipboard. You then have to crop away most of the just the right part of the screen, and many of them can
screen, but it can be done. also capture a menu when it is rolled down.

4. Queries - computed tables
Highlights In this chapter we will begin making a functional pro-
• Combine multiple tables into one (Query). totype that can show real data and update it. To do this,
• Basics of Structured Query Language (SQL). we often have to combine data from many tables in the
• User-entered search criteria. database. All relational database systems provide
means for combining tables into new tables by means
of queries. In this chapter we will see how to do it in
Access.
4.1 Query: join two tables

In Chapter 3 we had a simple version of the Find Guest stays recorded in the database with guest informa-
window. It showed a list of guests based on data from tion attached. In the example, John Simpson has
the Guest table. In the real system we want to show a three stays and Yun Chen two stays.
list of stays, including data about the guest and the 5. Save the query and give it the name qryStayList.
room booked. This means that we have to combine (The standard prefix for queries is qry.)
data from the Stay table, the Guest table, and the
RoomState table. This looks almost too easy. What happens really?
Access has made a so-called join of tblGuest and
Our first version of the stay list will just combine the tblStay. According to the E/R-model, each record in
Stay table and the Guest table. The bottom of Figure tblStay has a connecting string to a record in tblGuest.
4.1 shows the result we want: a single table with some In the query table, there will be one record for each of
fields from tblStay and some from tblGuest. these strings. If one of the stays didn't have a string to a
guest, this stay would not occur in the result.
Create a query
1. Start in the database window. Select Queries and Since each query record corresponds to a string be-
Create query in Design view. (In Access 97 select tween two source records, we can include arbitrary
New and then Design view.) fields from both source tables. This is what we have
2. Access asks you to select the tables you want to done.
combine. Select tblGuest and tblStay (Figure 4.1).
Click Add and then Close. Star = all fields? Note that the data model at the top of
the query window has a star in each box. It means "all
You now see the query design window (middle of Fig- fields". You may drag it to the grid and all source fields
ure 4.1). The top part of the window is an E/R-model, will be included in the query table. This may be con-
in our case consisting of tblGuest and tblStay. Access venient, but don't do it yet. Why? Assume that you
has included the relationship from the full E/R-model. drag the star from both tables. Then you will have two
It shows that the tables will be combined according to guestID fields in the result. You then have to refer to
guestID. This is just what we want in our case, but in them as tblStay.guestID and tblGuest.guestID. This
other cases you have to remove the relationships you leads to endless confusion later, particularly because
don't need and add new ones that you need for the some of Access's built-in Wizards cannot figure out
query. These changed relationships are only used in the about these names and screw things up.
query; they don't influence the full E/R-model.
Dynaset and data entry to query table
You may delete tables from the query window or add The query not only shows data, it can also be used for
further tables by right-clicking in the E/R-model. data entry. Try these experiments:
In the lower part of the window, you see the query 6. Open qryStayList and tblGuest at the same time.
grid where we will make a column for each field in the 7. In the query table, change the name of one of the
computed table. guests. As soon as you move the cursor to the next
line, you will see the change in the query table as
3. Drag stayID from tblStay to the grid. Then drag well as the guest table.
name, address1 and phone from tblGuest. Finally, 8. In tblGuest, try to change the guest name again.
drag state from tblStay. (You may also double- The query table will be updated immediately.
click the fields.)
The query table we look at is a dynaset because it is
You may rearrange the columns by selecting a column updated automatically. We can enter data into it be-
and dragging it to another place. cause it is a simple query where Access can find out
how to store the data into the source tables. For more
4. Switch to datasheet view. The query table should complex queries, this is not possible.
look like the bottom of the figure. It contains all
52 4. Queries - computed tables

Fig 4.1 Query - join two tables
Computed Tables
tables to join
Drag
Drag the
wanted
wanted
fields to grid.
(Or double click)
Datasheet
view
Query grid
Wanted:
List of stays
with guest data
The query has a property called Recordset Type. It is the guest and cannot preserve the referential integ-
Dynaset as a standard, but you can change it to Snap- rity. If you had included the foreign key in the
shot. Then Access computes the record list when you query, you could set it now and succeed. Never
open the query, and doesn't update it dynamically. In mind. (Remember to use Esc to get out of the in-
this case you cannot enter data through the query. consistent data update.)
(How to find the Recordset Property? From the query 11. In the query table, try to delete a line. What you
design window, use View -> Properties. But don't delete is the stay record, not the guest record.
change anything right now.)
Conclusion. The dynaset is suitable for editing data
Adding/deleting records in a dynaset produced by a simple query. As soon as you fill in a
9. In the query table, enter a guest name in the last field in the new record line (star-marked), Access will
line (with star-indication). When you move the try to create a new record. If you fill in a field from the
cursor up, you have created a new guest record guest table, Access will make a guest record. If you fill
(but not a new stay record). You cannot see it in in a field from the stay table, Access will (also) make a
tblGuest, but if you close and open tblGuest, you stay record. When you move the cursor to another
will see it. (Using the sort button A/Z on the tool- record, Access will check that referential integrity and
bar will also show the new guest.) other rules are met.
10. In the query table, enter a state in the last line and
move the cursor up. Access refuses to do it. It tries
to create a stay record, but lacks the foreign key to
4. Queries - computed tables 53

4.2 SQL and how it works
SQL means Structured Query Language. Behind a name definition, but accepts names written with differ-
query is always an SQL-statement that specifies what ent caps as equivalent.
to compute. Let us look at the SQL statement in
qryStayList: The matrix at the bottom of Figure 4.2 illustrates what
the SQL-statement basically does. It finds the result in
1. Open qryStayList. Select SQL view with the view seven steps (a to g):
menu at the top left of the Access window.
a) Cartesian product. The SQL-engine takes the
The result should be as shown on Figure 4.2. At first first guest record and extends it with all the fields
sight, an SQL-statement looks overwhelming, but after from the first stay record. It corresponds to the top
a while it is not so hard to read. Most SQL-statements left cell of the matrix. Then it takes the second
are SELECT statements with this structure: guest record and extends it with the first stay
record. This corresponds to the second cell in the
SELECT <the fields to show in the result> top row. And so on for all the guest records. This
FROM <one or more tables> corresponds to all the cells in the top-row of the
matrix. Then it does it once again using the second
The SELECT part corresponds to the top-two lines of stay record. This gives the second row of the ma-
the query grid. Field names may include strange char- trix. And so on until we have got a row for each
acters, and in this case Access surrounds the name with stay record.
square brackets to avoid that the name is interpreted as
something else. (Often Access surrounds the names In summary, the matrix corresponds to all the possible
with square brackets for no apparent reason.) Examples combinations of a stay and a guest. If tblGuest has x
of names with strange characters: records and tblStay y records, the result will be x*y
guest# written as [guest#] records. This is called the Cartesian product after the
Guest History written as [Guest History] mathematician and philosopher Des Cartes.
The FROM part corresponds to the tables and the rela- b) Join. Next, the SQL-engine discards all cells
tionships in the top part of the query window. In our where the join criterion is not met. In our case, the
example, the FROM part says that tblGuest and tblStay criterion is that guestID must be equal in the two
must be joined, and the join criterion must be that source tables. What is left are the cells marked
guestID must be equal in the two tables. with a cross on the figure. Notice that all stays are
included because they have a cross in their row.
Actually, Access stores the query as an SQL-statement, However some guests (for instance guest 2) are not
and when we want to see the query in design view, included because no stay is recorded for them in
Access translates it into a grid and the data model. You the database.
can sometimes observe this when you have set up the
grid in one way. When you close the query and open it c) Where. We can also specify Where criteria, for
again, the grid looks different, for instance with the instance
columns in a different sequence. Your version and Where state=1
Access's version correspond to the same SQL state- This would cause the SQL-engine to discard all
ment. cells where state isn't one. They are discarded at
this point of the process.
You can also type the SQL-statement directly in SQL-
view. Access may still be able to show it as a grid, but d) Group By. We can specify Group-By criteria.
for some SQL-statements it is not possible. For in- They cause the SQL-engine to bundle the
stance this is the case with a UNION statement, where remaining records according to the Group-By
two tables are to be concatenated one after the other. criteria and compress each bundle into one record.
Access can handle this, but not show it as a grid.
Expert Access developers sometimes define a query e) Having. If we have a Group-By, we can also
with a grid, sometimes with SQL, and often they specify Having criteria. They tell the SQL-engine
switch between the two during development. to keep only bundles that meet the criterion. Other
bundles are discarded at this point.
Capital letters. Access doesn't care whether you type
with capitals or small letters. For instance you may f) Order By. We can ask the SQL-engine to order
type SELECT with small letters, but when you close the remaining records according to some criteria.
and open the query in SQL view, SELECT will be with Some people say that the records are sorted rather
capitals. When you define field names and other than ordered.
names, Access remembers the capitalization in the

Fig 4.2 What SQL does step-by-step
a) Cartesian product:
5*7 combinations of guest and stay
tblStay: tblGuest: guestID b) Join:
stayID, guestID Include only those where
1 2 5 6 8 tblGuest.guestID = tblStay.guestID
c) Where:
728 1 Include only those where . . .
736 1 d) Group By:
Compress bundles of records to one
740 1
e) Having:
727 5 Include only bundles where . . .
729 5 f) Order By:
Sort the remaining records according to . . .
737 6
g) Select:
739 8 Select and compute new fields,
discard the rest
g) Select. Finally, SQL discards all the fields that we much too long time in large databases. Assume that we
have not mentioned in the SELECT-part. In the joined two tables each with 10,000 records. The SQL-
grid there is a Show indication in each column. It engine would have to create 100 million combination
indicates that this column must be in the SELECT- records, and then discard most of them. In practice, the
part and be shown in the final table. We will later SQL-engine uses index tables and other tricks to create
see that we can compute new fields in the only the "crosses".
SELECT part. This computation also takes place at
this stage. Wonder why we talk about Access and the SQL-en-
gine? You don't see the SQL-engine directly because
Notice that these rules tell us that we can have join Access's user interface hides it. But Access and the
criteria (and other criteria) that refer to fields that are SQL-engine are two different software components.
not shown in the result. We have utilized this rule in We may connect our Access application to another
qryStayList because the join criterion is given by SQL-engine than the one delivered with Access. As an
guestID, which isn't in the result at all. example, we might connect it to an Oracle database.
Most of our user interface would still work the same
Although the query result is as described above, the way.
SQL-engine doesn't arrive at it that way. It would take

4.3 Outer join
The query we made above used an INNER JOIN in the 2. Show qryStayList in design mode (Figure 4.3).
SQL-statement. Can we also make an outer join? Yes, 3. Select the relationship arrow, then right-click it.
and we need it right now. Usability tests showed that Choose inclusion of all records from tblGuest.
users had troubles distinguishing guests from stays. 4. Switch to datasheet view. Now the stay-less guests
The solution turned out to be that whatever the user should appear on the list. These lines will have
searched for, the system would show matching stays blanks in the fields originating in tblStay.
and matching guests. 5. Look also at the SQL version. It now says
FROM tblGuest LEFT JOIN qryStayArrival
What we need is a list of all stays, but the list must also ON ...
include guests that have no stay at present in the data- This means that all records in the left side table
base (guest 2 on Figure 4.2 was an example). Now we have to be included. Right joins exist too, of
want to include all guests, no matter whether they have course. An outer join means a Left or a Right Join.
a matching stay or not. This is an OUTER JOIN. Make
it this way: What happens in an outer join? When the system finds
a guest without any stay, it combines the guest with a
1. Make sure there is a guest in the database without blank stay record and includes it in the result. The bot-
a stay. If not, enter a new guest record now. tom of Figure 4.3 shows how this rule would include
guest 2. Blank fields have the value Null.

Fig 4.3 Outer join
Wanted:
Include all guests
Outer join:
Right-click and choose
Blanks for stay fields
tblStay: tblGuest: guestID

stayID, guestID
1 2 5 6 8
728 1 SELECT tblStay.stayID, tblGuest.name, . . .

FROM tblGuest LEFT JOIN tblStay ON
736 1
tblGuest.guestID = tblStay.guestID;
740 1
727 5
729 5
Outer join:
737 6 Add missing guests combined
739 8 with a blank stay (Null values).
Null stay

4.4 Aggregate query - Group By
If we want to use the stay list for the real user interface, state, because these columns are fields from the stay
we still lack something: the arrival date and the room table. So grouping by them is alright. You may try to
number. In order to get this data, we have to include change the setting for guestID to Min rather than
data from tblRoomState: Group By. It makes no change in the result since all
records in the bundle have the same stayID and thus
arrival = first date among the room states. the same guestID.
room = first roomID among the room states.
When there is more than one room, 6. Save the query and give it the name qryStay-
show only the text "more". Arrival.
We will first compute an extended version of the stay Alias - renaming a column. At this stage the arrival
table with these data added to each stay. The small da- date is computed correctly, but we would like a differ-
tasheet to the right in Figure 4.4A outlines the desired ent name (an alias) for the column:
result. In order to do this, we have to bundle all room
states of the stay into one, leaving only the arrival date 7. Open the query in design view. In the grid, change
and the room indication. This is an example of an ag- the heading of the date column to arrival: date.
gregate query. Here is how to do it: This causes Access to compute the first date as be-
fore, but give the result the name arrival.
1. From the database window, create a new query in
design mode. Include tblRoomState and tblStay. Computed field. The last thing missing is that the first
(See top of Figure 4.4A.) roomID may be confusing to the user if there is more
2. Drag these fields to the grid: stayID, guestID, state than one room in the stay. It is particularly confusing if
(from tblStay) , date and roomID. You now have John Simpson first stays in room 12, then moves to
an ordinary inner join based on the criterion room 11. The stay list would then indicate room 11 and
tblRoomState.stayID=tblStay.stayID the receptionist might by mistake give him the key for
3. Change to datasheet view. You should now see a room 11 when he arrives. This is why we want to show
table like the one at the lower left of Figure 4.4A. "more" if the stay involves more than one room. The
It contains a record for each of the room states - receptionist will then have to open the stay window to
with some of the stay fields added. see which rooms and when.
Find the smallest date and roomID. We want to In order to find out whether there are more than one
combine all records with the same stayID into one, as room in the stay, we compute the Min and Max of
shown on the figure. For instance we have four records roomID and compare them:
with stayID = 727. They make up a bundle of records.
All the records in the bundle have the same stayID, but 8. Add another roomID column in the grid and let it
they have different dates and room numbers. We want compute Max rather than Min (Figure 4.4A). Re-
to compress this bundle into one record - the one name the two roomID columns to A and B as
shown to the right. shown.
9. Use a blank column - no dragging of fields. In the
4. Click the sum symbol on the tool bar (Σ) or right- total line, indicate that it is an Expression (a com-
click in the grid to find the Σ. You will now see a puted value). In the top line specify this expres-
new row in the grid, Total. sion:
room: IIf(A=B, A, "more")
Initially, Access shows Group By everywhere in the
total-line. We want to group records by stayID. For Warning: Depending on the regional settings of
date and roomID we want to find the lowest value in your computer, you may have to use semicolons
each group: instead of commas (see more in section 6.6):
room: IIf(A=B; A; "more")
5. Change the total-setting for the date column to
This expression says that we want a new field called
Min. Do the same for the roomID column. If you
room. If column A (the smallest roomID) is equal to
now change to datasheet view, you should see a
columnB (the largest roomID), then the result shown
shorter table, somewhat like the one to the right.
must be this roomID. Otherwise the result must be the
The heading for the date column now says MinOfDate text "more". The operator IIf is called an immediate if.
and it correctly shows the first date for this stay. The See the result in datasheet mode. It should be as shown
roomID column is similar. at the lower right of Figure 4.4A. The room column is
what we need for the stay list.
You may wonder why we have left guestID and state
as Group By. Actually, when two records have the Also have a look at the SQL-version:
same stayID, they also have the same guestID and

Fig 4.4A Aggregate query - Group By - bundle records
Alias
Σ: Group By Wanted result:

grouped by stayID
date)
dle -> Min(
Bun
SELECT Min(tblRoomState.date) AS arrival . . .

FROM tblStay INNER JOIN tblRoomState
ON tblStay.stayID = tblRoomState.stayID
GROUP BY tblStay.stayID . . . ;

FROM tblStay INNER JOIN tblRoomState ON
tblStay.stayID = tblRoomState.stayID
GROUP BY tblStay.stayID . . . ;
The renaming is in SQL handled by AS arrival in the

first line. The bundling of records is handled by
GROUP BY in the last line. Group By works after the
Join, but before the Select is made. The Select part can
thus refer to any of the fields Grouped By, but what
about the non-grouped fields, for instance date? If we
mention them in the Select part, which of the date val-
ues in the bundle should the computer choose? For this
reason, non-grouped fields must be accessed via Min or
another aggregate function.

Select bundles HAVING First(x), Last(x) The first (last) value in column x of
We may select only certain bundles and discard the the bundle. May be null. Although Access
rest. Figure 4.4B shows an example. We want to keep allows it, never use these functions in a
only the stays with arrival 21-10-2002 (European date query. The reason is that the sequence of
format). the records is arbitrary during the SQL-en-
gine's work - even if you specify that the
10. In the grid column for arrival, set the criterion as input or the result be ordered in some way.
shown in the figure. The result should be as shown The result will be a random record in the
at the lower right of the figure. bundle.
Also have a look at the SQL-version: First and Last are not parts of SQL because
the result of a true SQL query is a set of
SELECT Min(tblRoomState.date) AS arrival . . . records, not an ordered list of records. It
FROM . . .
GROUP BY tblStay.stayID
makes no sense to talk about the first or
HAVING Min(tblRoomState.date) = #10/21/02# ; last in a set. Ordering of the records into a
list only makes sense when the records are
Notice that in the query grid, we could just set the used outside SQL. As an example, First
criterion on the arrival column. It is tempting to make and Last may be used in Visual Basic to
a similar thing in SQL: find the first or last value in a list shown to
the user.
FROM . . . Var(x) The variance of the values in column x. A
HAVING arrival = #10/21/02# ;
variance is used in statistical analysis. It
shows how much the x values in the
However, this fails because SQL doesn't compute new bundle deviate from the average x value.
fields such as arrival until all the criteria have been
handled. Thus arrival isn't available at the time when First the Var-function computes the
HAVING is dealt with. So in SQL you have to repeat differences between each x and the
the Min-expression in the HAVING clause. average in the bundle. Then it squares the
differences and finds the total of the
Also notice the date formats. In the query grid we use squares. Finally it finds the average
the regional date formats, but in SQL we must use US squared difference by dividing with
date formats. Count(x)-1.
Other aggregate functions VarP(x) Similar to Var(x) but divides with

Above we have used two aggregate functions, Min and Count(x) rather than Count(x)-1. You
Max. There are others available. Here is a summary of cannot select VarP in the query grid, but
them: you can specify it in SQL.
Count(x) The number of records in the bundle. In statistics, Var(x) is suited if the group is
Records with a null value in column x are a sample of a larger population, while
not counted. VarP(x) is suited for the entire population.
Sum(x) The total of the non-null values in column StDev(x) The standard deviation of the values in
x of the bundle. Null if all values are null. column x. It is the square root of Var(x).
While Var(x) exaggerates large deviations,
Avg(x) The average of the non-null values, i.e. StDev(x) is more like an average
Sum/Count. Null if all values are null. deviation.
Min(x), Max(x) The lowest (highest) non-null value. StDevP(x) The square root of VarP(x).
Null if all values are null.

Fig 4.4B Select bundles HAVING . . .
Stays HAVING
arrival this date.
Local date format

FROM tblStay INNER JOIN tblRoomState
ON tblStay.stayID = tblRoomState.stayID
HAVING Min(tblRoomState.date) = #21/10/02#;
HAVING arrival US date format

this date
Aggregation and expressions Dynaset

You can specify the aggregate functions in the total- A Group By query cannot be used as a dynaset
line of the grid, but you can also use them in expres- although you can set its Recordset property to Dynaset.
sions that compute a field. For instance we could have It will not be updated dynamically, but the VBA
spared column A and B above, and instead written this program can ask for a requery of the list. The user
expression in the room column: cannot update fields in a Group By query - not even the
Group By fields, which in principle might be
room: IIf (Min(tblRoomState.roomID) = updatable. See section 4.7.1 for ways to deal with it.
Max(tblRoomState.roomID),
Min(tblRoomState.roomID), "more")
This will only work, of course, in a Group By query.
You can also aggregate computed values that combine

data from more than one table, such as this:
Min(tblA.x + tblB.y )

4.5 Query a query, handling null values
At this point we have a query that produces an im- is a computed field, and what have we asked SQL to
proved stay list with arrival date and room indication. do? Compute this expression:
Queries can in many ways be used exactly as tables.
Now we want to join the improved stay list with the room: IIf(A=B, A, "more")
guest table to get the final stay list in the Find Guest
For the stay-less guests, both A (the lowest room num-
window. The procedure is similar to when we made the
ber) and B (the highest room number) are null because
first qryStayList:
the guest is combined with an empty stay record. Now,
Outer join qryStayArrival with tblGuest what is the value of null=null? You might think it is
1. First delete the old qryStayList from the database True, but not so in SQL. Actually the value is null,
window (or rename it to qryStayList2). which is neither True nor False.
2. Create a new query in Design view. Add tblGuest
Think of null as "unknown". Is unknown = unknown?
and qryStayArrival to the query window (see Fig-
Hard to know, in other words it is "unknown".
ure 4.5).
3. Access may guess that you want to join tblGuest The general rule is that any expression with a null
and qryStayArrival on guestID. Otherwise, you somewhere is null. So null+7 is null and null>7 is null.
have to create this relationship by dragging Similarly null=7 is null.
guestID from one table to the other.
4. Make the join an outer join so that all guests are Hey, how do you test whether something is null?
included. (Select the connector and right-click.) Asking if x = null will always give null. The IsNull
5. Drag the fields to the grid as shown. Include the function helps us out:
guestID from tblGuest. It will not be shown to the
user in the final form, but we need it to make the IsNull(x) is true when x is null.
program know which guest the user points at.
6. Close the query and give it the name qryStayList. There are a few other exceptions to the general rule:
Open it again in datasheet mode. Null and False is False.
No matter what the unknown is, the result will be false.
In datasheet mode, you will get something like the Null or True is True.
table at the bottom of the figure. We are very close to No matter what the unknown is, the result will be true.
the final result, but the guest lines without stay look
wrong. They appear in the middle of the list - looks "Abc" & Null is "Abc"
stupid. Second they have a room indication "more". The & operator always converts both operands to texts
Very confusing - there is no stay for these guests, so as far as possible, so Null becomes an empty text.
how can Access come up with this?
We might try to repair the room expression by means
Sort the list. Let us first fix the ordering problem. It of the IsNull function, but there is a simpler solution in
would be better to sort the list by arrival date, and then this case. We just ask whether A is different from B
put the stay-less guests at the end. It is easy: and if so, the result will be "more":
7. In the grid, use the Sort line for arrival. Set it to 8. In the grid for qryStayArrival, change the room
Decreasing. When you see the list in datasheet expression to this:
mode, the latest arrival is first and the stay-less room: IIf(A <> B, "more", A)
guests last. SQL considers the null value smaller 9. Save qryStayArrival and reopen qryStayList. The
than any other value, so the stay-less guests are result should now be right.
last. (Below we will look at a way to order the
stays according to increasing arrival times, yet When A and B are null, A<>B will be null and SQL
have the stay-less guests last.) will select A. True is required to select "more". So the
result will be A, which is null. Just what we want.
If you look at the SQL version, you see that SQL
expresses the sorting as ORDER BY arrival. Sorting null last. As a finishing touch, we will fix the
ordering problem. The trick is to compute a field where
Null=null? null values become higher than anything else, and then
The erroneous "more" indications are more puzzling. sort by this field:
Let us look closer at the way a query is computed. In
10. In the grid for qryStayList, use an empty column.
section 4.2 we explained that after discarding the
Enter this expression in the top line:
useless Cartesian combinations, the SQL-engine s: IIf( IsNull(arrival), 365000, arrival)
computes the final fields in each record. The room field

Fig 4.5 Query a query, Null values
Order By arrival
You may get

“more” here.
Why?
Here we compute a field s by means of another IIf-ex- Show indication for the s-column. Check that the
pression. We ask explicitly whether arrival is null, and list is sorted correctly and doesn't have the s-col-
if so use the large value 365000. Otherwise we use umn.
arrival as it is. Look at the result in datasheet view. 13. Close qryStayList and save the changes. Now open
Notice that 365000 is shown as a large date around it again and look at the query grid. The s-column is
1000 years ahead. Why? Remember that a date is still there, but it is not called "s" anymore. This is
stored as the number of days since December 30, 1899. an example of Access changing the grid behind
Since a year is around 365 days, we have thus specified our back. No harm is done, because it still works
a date around 1000 years after this date. correctly. Access translated the grid into SQL and
when we opened the query again, it constructed the
(Remember the year-2000 problem? We have now cre- grid from the SQL version. Try to look at the SQL
ated a year 2899 problem. We don't care - we will all version to see what the Sort indication and the
be dead at that time. Or should we care anyway?) Show indication becomes in SQL.
11. Now remove the Sort indication from the arrival At this stage we finally have a stay list that is worth
column, and set an Increasing indication for the s- showing in the user's Find Guest window. In the next
column. Check in datasheet view that it looks section we will use it for this purpose and also do a bit
right. about the search criteria.
12. Tiny problem remaining. We don't want the s-col-
umn to appear in the result. In the grid, remove the

4.6 Query with user criteria
Queries are often used in combination with search cri- have to add more criteria fields and command
teria. The user enters a criterion and the system shows buttons. It is not important to do it in this exercise.
a list of matching records. This is what we want in the
Find Guest window. First we will make a continuous Simple search criteria
form based on qryStayList. The procedure is similar to In the real system, there will be thousands of guests
when we made the first fsubStayList: and stays, so search criteria are essential. Start out with
some simple experiments with search criteria:
Create the continuous form
1. In the database window's Form tab, use the Form 9. Close frmFindStay and open qryStayList in design
Wizard. Choose qryStayList as the base for the mode.
form. 10. In the Criteria line of the grid, fill in a criterion for
2. Select inclusion of all fields except guestID. the name column (bottom of Figure 4.6). Try en-
Choose the Columnar layout to get a continuous tering
form with labels, next choose the Standard style. = "john simpson"
3. Save the form and give it the name fsubStayList. Change to datasheet mode. Now you should only
(Replace the old fsubStayList or rename it.) see John Simpson's stays. (The SQL-engine
doesn't care about capitalization.)
We are going to use the subform in datasheet view, 11. Try this too:
which gives a compact format and easy navigation. If < "john simpson"
you look at the subform in datasheet view, you will You get all guests alphabetically before John
notice that the column headings are programmer-ori- Simpson.
ented rather than user-oriented. Furthermore, the state 12. Try the criterion "john". There will be no matches
field is shown as a code rather than as the mnemonic since no name field contains just "john".
text booked, out, etc. 13. Now try with a wild-card expression:
Like ("john*")
We want the datasheet to look like Figure 4.6. You get all guests with names starting with "john".
Try
Change headings, etc. Like ("*s*")
4. Open fsubStayList in Design view. You get all guests with an "s" in their name.
5. For each of the fields, change its label to the user-
The operator Like is a kind of equal sign. It just inter-
oriented name.
prets the stars in the text string as "any characters at
6. For the state field, also change a few things on the
this place". Note that we can have stars in several
Format tab: Width of the first column should be 0
places, for instance before and after the text we look
in order that the state code is not shown, but only
for. Like is also called the wildcard operator. See more
the mnemonic text (section 2.4). Also set Text
in section 6.4
Align to Left.
7. For the form itself, set Default View and Views
Allowed, remove the navigation buttons. Also set User-specified search criteria
the Caption to fsubStayList rather than the query In order to let the user specify the name part he is
name. (The user will not see the caption when the looking for, we have to retrieve the criterion at run
form is used as a subform, but the designer can time. We want to specify a criterion something like this
Like ("* <user text> *")
easily get confused when seeing the query name in
the title of the subform.) However, the Like operator knows about the stars, but
not about finding the user text. We have to combine the
Check the result in datasheet view. Then it is time to text by means of the &-operator from three texts: the
use it the FindStay form: first star, the user text, and the last star. The expression
will be something like this
Connect continuous form to master form Like ("*" & <user text> & "*")
8. Open frmFindStay in user mode (Form view).
Since the new continuous form has the same name In our case, the user text will be in the Last-name text
as the old one, the result should look like the mid- box on the master form. We will call this control
dle of Figure 4.6. To make it look like the final txtName. In Access we can then address the text box
system, you would have to enlarge the FindStay with this expression:
form and the subform control. You would also Forms!frmFindStay!txtName

Fig 4.6 Query with user criteria
User-oriented headings
Mnemonic states
Other -> Name =

txtName
Connected
to fsubStayList
A simple search criterion.

Or try a user-defined search criterion:
Like ("*" &
[forms]![frmfindstay]![txtname] & "*")
This strange-looking expression means: Look in the 17. Switch to Form mode. The list looks as usual.
collection of forms to find frmFindStay. Then look in Enter for instance an s in the text box. Then click
the collection of controls on this form to find txtName. F9 for requery. You should now see only guests
This is Visual Basic's way of addressing objects, and in with an s in their name.
the next chapter we will look more closely at how it 18. Try other criteria. When you have a blank text box,
works. the system shows the entire list. Why? In this case
it looks for "**", meaning anything followed by
Ready to combine the pieces? anything. All names will match!
14. Open qryFindStay in design mode. Set this crite- In the final system, the user should not use F9 to
rion expression in the name column: search, but our carefully planned and tested buttons and
Like ("*" & forms!frmfindstay!txtname & "*") their shortcuts. In a live search, the system will respond
Don't worry if Access adds brackets as usual. character by character as the user enters a criterion. All
15. Close qryFindStay and open frmFindStay in de- of this needs some Visual Basic programming, and we
sign mode. will show it in section 5.2.2.
16. Select the Last-name text box and set its name to
txtName (on the Other tab). The prefix txt is the
standard prefix for text boxes.

4.7 Bound main form and subform
In many cases we want to bind a main form (a window) Make the subform
to the database. One example is the stay window. It We will now make the subform that shows the rooms
should show data about a single stay and guest (Figure for the stay.
4.7). On the stay window, we also have a list of rooms,
and it should show the rooms for this stay. 6. Make a query, qryStayRooms. It is a join of three
tables: tblRoomState, tblRoom, and tblRoomType
As you see, we need two queries: one to combine stay (Figure 4.7).
and guest to supply data for the main Stay form; an-
other to extract room data for the list of rooms. We will The result of the raw query would be a list of all room
now outline how to do it. We will shorten the explana- states with data added about the room type and the
tion a bit and leave it to you to open and close things prices. For a long stay, this would give an awfully long
properly. list of room states with one line per day. We want to
shorten it to one line per room. In each line we need to
Finish the main form show the first date the room is used and the number of
1. Make a query, qryStay (not shown on the figure). nights it is used in total.
It must join tblGuest and tblStay. It should include
all of the fields, since they will all be needed The query should give a result like the datasheet to the
somewhere on the Stay form. The easiest way is to right in Figure 4.7. Here is a description of the fields in
drag the two stars from the tables to the grid. Don't the query result. Try to define the query on your own.
worry that we get two guestID fields - one from
each table. We actually need them in the later pro- stayID: Not shown in the continuous form, but needed
grams. to bind the list properly to the main form.
2. Bind to qryStay. You should have made a simple roomID: Not shown directly in the continuous form,
version of frmStay already (section 3.4). Now set but needed by the program to find out what the user
its Record Source to qryStay in order to connect it has selected.
to the query. From: The first date this room was used by the stay.
3. Connect the existing main-form controls to the Nights: The number of nights this room was used by
query. For instance the Stay No. field should have the stay.
its ControlSource set to stayID, in order to show Room: A computed text string consisting of roomID, a
this query field in the text box. comma, and the description from tblRoomType.
4. Add fields. Add a few more fields to the main Persons: The number of persons actually staying in the
Stay window, for instance the name, address and room.
state. A convenient way to do it is to use the small Price: The price - taking into account a possible dis-
Field List window that may have popped up when count for one person staying in a double room.
you connected the form to the query. Otherwise More precisely, when the number of actual persons
open the Field List window through the View is one and the bedCount is more than one, price2
menu or with the Field List icon next to the should be used. Otherwise price1.
hammer icon. Drag a field to the form to create a Total: The total price for the room for all these nights.
text box and associated label. Access will
automatically bind the text box to the query field. Binding the subform to the main form
5. For combo boxes, such as pay method and state, 7. The query is to be shown in the subform on the
make the first column width zero to let the user see Rooms tab. First make a continuous form based on
the mnemonic text rather than the number code. qryStayRooms. Use the Form Wizard and omit
stayID and roomID from the continuous form.
Have a look at the stay window in user mode. It should Since the field names above are user-oriented, the
show the first stay. You can use PageUp and Page- continuous form should automatically look correct
Down to browse through all the stays. You can edit in datasheet view.
guest and stay data through the window since the dy- 8. Connect the continuous form to the subform con-
naset behind the form allows it. trol on the Rooms tab. When you now look at the
Stay window in user mode, you will see that the
In the final system, the user should be allowed to edit subform shows all rooms in the database.
data this way, but it makes no sense to allow him 9. To show only the rooms related to the stay, set
browsing through thousands of stays this way. We will these properties on the Data tab for the subform
later see how to control this and the creation of new control:
stays (section 5.5.2). Link Child Fields = stayID
Link Master Fields = stayID.

Fig 4.7 Bound main form
Wanted result
RecordSource = qryStay
Link to main RecordSource = qryStayRooms

form stayID
Query for
the subform
In this way you specify that you only want to see those user will then see a dialog box where he can enter
child records (in qryStayRooms) where stayID matches the number of persons and possible other editable
stayID in the master form. data. When he closes the button, the VBA program
updates the corresponding room state records.
Now the stay window should look right. Try browsing
through the stays and notice how the room lists vary b) Store query result in a temporary table. The
from one stay to another. alternative is to store the query result as a new,
temporary table. (SQL can do this by means of an
4.7.1 Editing a GROUP BY query INSERT INTO query. See section 7.1) Then you
What kind of actions can the user make on a complex show this table instead of qryRoomState. Since
query table such as qryStayRooms? Actually very this is a table and not a query, the user can edit it.
little. It would make sense to edit the number of Next, the VBA program will have to transfer the
persons in the room, but since the room list is made by changes to tblRoomState.
a Group By, this is impossible. There are two ways out:
Programming issues such as these are the reason many
a) Dialog box. Provide an edit-button that the user software applications don't allow the user to edit di-
can click when he has selected a rooms line. The rectly in what he sees, but offer him a dialog box in-
stead.

5. Access through Visual Basic
Highlights We will first have a look at the built-in objects, for
• Addressing and changing Forms, Controls and instance Forms and Controls. We will see how they can
records be addressed from the programming language, Visual
• Responding to clicks, typing and other events. Basic for Applications (VBA). Next we see what
happens when the user types or clicks something, and
how the VBA program can respond. We will also look
When you develop Access-based user interfaces, you at the tools available to the programmer.
soon get to a point where the built-in features don't suf-
fice. It happens for instance when buttons or menu From section 5.4 and on, the text is no longer a tutorial
items must do something a bit complex. Then you need you have to follow to understand the rest. We don't say
to make program pieces that cooperate with the built-in do this and do that, although we still explain
features. experiments you can do to explore Access. These
sections are for looking up some topic, for instance
From this chapter and on, we assume that you have how you can open and close forms from VBA, how
some understanding of programming in general. For you can access records in the database, etc.
instance that a program consists of statements that can
be executed one by one; that it has variables and can We only show pieces of VBA in this chapter. Chapter 6
change them during the execution; that it can call a is for reference purposes and covers VBA systemati-
procedure (also called subroutine, function, method or cally. The VBA-language itself is rather simple and has
operation), which executes and then returns to the place the same components as many other programming lan-
where it was called; and that a procedure may have guages, for instance Java and C++. The difficult part is
parameters. how the program cooperates with the built-in objects
and how these objects really work. This is our focus in
this chapter.
5.1 The objects in Access

In the previous chapters we have encountered a lot of A query has also an SQL-property - the text that
Access concepts: tables, queries, forms, and controls. describes how to compute the records in the query.
How do they relate to each other? Figure 5.1A is a
slightly simplified data model for all of these concepts. Tables and queries play much the same role. Both of
them can for instance be the record source for a Form.
When you work with Access, you really work with two
different systems, the SQL engine and Access. The Records and fields
SQL engine supplied with Access is called the Jet En- Each recordset contains a number of records, and each
gine. It is used also by other systems than Access. You record contains a number of fields. Each field has only
can for instance use your database through Excel and one attribute, the value stored in the field.
Word too. Access is primarily a tool for accessing data
in databases through user windows (forms). Access can You can see the records in Datasheet view. You look
also work with other SQL engines than Jet, for instance either directly into a table or into records selected and
Oracle. When doing this, you may lose some designer computed by a query. The model shows that each
features but gain other qualities, for instance speed and recordset keeps track of a current record in the set.
reliability.
The model in Figure 5.1A doesn't show that each field
Databases actually may belong to several recordsets, for instance
fields that are seen through several queries at the same
The database class on Figure 5.1A contains the cur-
time. (It is one of the simplifications we have made.)
rently open databases. Until now we have only looked
at one database, but Access can handle and connect to
several open databases at the same time. Access instances
The Access class on Figure 5.1A contains the currently
Recordsets, tables and queries open Access windows. When you open an mdb-file,
A database contains a number of recordsets. Some you will see an Access window with title bar and a da-
recordsets are tables, others are queries (shown as tabase window inside. The Access window corresponds
subclasses). Each recordset has a description for each to an object in the Access class. You may open another
of its fields. The description includes the field name, mdb-file, and will then get another Access window
the field type, format, etc. (another instance) and another object in the Access
class.
68 5. Access through Visual Basic

Fig 5.1A The objects in Access
Access Database
Open forms
Forms Name Table

bound to
Form Recordset
Name,
RecordSource, current Query
Events Record record
Controls
SQL
Control Field FieldDescr
Form
Name, value
Name, type, ...
Position ... Subform Form, SourceObject, LinkChildFields . . .
ControlSource, Forms(0)
Properties Textbox
Value, Locked . . . Forms(“frmFindStay”)
Forms ! frmFindStay . Caption = . . .
Combo
Property ControlSource,
Named item Property
Value, Locked . . .
Button in collection
Forms ! frmFindStay ! txtName.Value = “abc”

Forms ! frmFindStay! subStayList.Form ! stayID.Value
Forms Set and get properties - try it out

Each Access window contains a collection of open The addressing mechanisms are very important when
Forms. These are the forms you can address from you use VBA, but you have to practice.
VBA. (The closed forms are there too, of course, but
you must open them before you can address them.) 1. Open the hotel database and open frmFindStay
Notice that the 1:m connector from Access to Form has (the Find Guest window).
the name Forms. You can use this name to address the 2. Open the Immediate window with Ctrl+G.
forms: 3. If you work in Access 2000 or 2003, this also
opens the Visual Basic window where you can
Forms(0) program. Make the Visual Basic window smaller
Gives you the first open form. than the full screen (use the Restore button next to
Forms("frmFindStay")
the cross that closes the window).
Gives you the open form with the name
frmFindStay. Figure 5.1B shows the Immediate window. You can
Forms!frmFindStay
enter VBA statements here and have them executed
Another way of getting this open form.
immediately. Try to set and get some properties:
Notice that you can address a form by its sequential
4. Enter this statement:
number in the Forms collection or by its name. You Forms!frmFindStay. Caption = "Guest Lookup"
can address it by its name in two ways: With the name You should see the form heading change.
in quotes inside a parenthesis, or with an exclamation Note: Don't use spaces around ! or before .
mark and the name without quotes. (Sometimes it is
useful to store the name of a form in a variable. To 5. Use the ? statement to print the caption in the
access the form you write the name of this variable Immediate window:
inside the parenthesis.) ?Forms!frmFindStay. Caption
6. Try printing the caption using the other addressing
The exclamation mark is called the bang-operator. It mechanisms: Forms(0) and Forms("frmFindStay").
works exactly as the name in the parenthesis, but is 7. Close and reopen frmFindStay. The caption should
simpler to read and write. You can use the addressing now be back to Find Guest.
methods to set a property of a form. The following
statement will for instance change the user-oriented What happens here? The caption is just a dialogue
name (heading) of frmFindStay: variable that doesn't survive close and open. However,
when you constructed the form, you specified the cap-
Forms!frmFindStay.Caption = "Guest Lookup" tion as Find Guest. This setting is the default value for
the caption property when you open the form. Any
5. Access through Visual Basic 69

caption changes you make in the open form will be lost 11. Try printing and setting some other properties of
when you close the form. txtName, for instance FontSize.
12. Also try printing the Name property of txtName.
(It is possible to change the default value for the Its name should be "txtName". You should not be
Caption with VBA. Just open frmFindStay in design able to change the name unless you set the form in
mode and then set Caption in the same way.) design mode.
8. Keep frmFindStay open and open also fsubStay- A form may be bound to a recordset, and the property
List. (This subform is also used inside RecordSource specifies how.
frmFindStay). Change and print its caption.
13. Use the ?-command to print the record source for
The change has no effect on the subform inside the two open forms. FrmFindStay should have an
frmFindStay. We are dealing with two open instances empty record source while fsubStayList should be
of fsubStayList. We cannot even access the subform bound.
instance with Forms( ). It is not a member of this
collection. When the form is bound, it can show records from the
recordset. In single-form view, it shows only one
Controls record at a time. In continuous-form and datasheet
Each form contains a collection of Controls, for in- view it can show a sequence of records. In all cases, an
stance text boxes and command buttons. In the same arrow in the record selector area marks the current
way as for forms, you can address a control on the record. From VBA, you can address the current record:
form in these ways:
14. Print the value of the stayID for the current record
Forms(0). Controls(0) in fsubStayList:
The first control on the first open form. ? forms!fsubstaylist!stayid
Forms(0). Controls("txtName") Check that it matches the open fsubStayList.
The txtName control on the first open form. 15. Use the mouse to select another record in the open
Forms!frmFindStay. Controls!txtName
fsubStayList. Now repeat the ? command. You
The txtName control on frmFindStay.
should see the stayID for the new current record.
In the last line, notice how the first bang selects the
form by name, the other the control by name. Notice Collections
also the usual dot-operator. It selects a built-in property Collections have a count property, which gives you the
of the form. number of items in the collection.
To shorten these long expressions, VBA works with 16. Try printing the number of items in the Forms
default collections. The Controls collection is the de- collection:
?Forms. Count
fault collection on a form. This means that if you omit
Is it correct?
the word Controls, VBA will look in the controls-col-
17. The controls on a form are also a collection, called
lection anyway. You could thus write this instead:
Controls. Try in the same way to print the number
Forms(0) (0) The first control on the first open form. of controls on frmFindStay and fsubStayList.
Forms(0) ("txtName")
The txtName control on the first open form. Even the properties of a control or a form make up a
Forms!frmFindStay!txtName collection, called Properties (see Figure 5.1A). You
The txtName control on frmFindStay. may also look into them with the general addressing
mechanism.
Controls come in many variants (sub-classes), for in-
stance Subform, Text Box, Combo Box, Command Keep frmFindStay open for further exercises in the
button. They all have a name, a position, a height and a next section.
width, but otherwise they have very different proper-
ties. We will look at some of the controls in more detail Subform
later. SourceObject property. A subform control has many
properties, but a particularly interesting one is Sour-
Try it out ceObject. It is the name of the form to show. When we
9. If you have followed the earlier exercises closely, constructed frmFindStay, we set SourceObject to fsub-
the name of the Last-name field should be StayList. We can see it and change it from VBA:
txtName. Try setting the value of this control:
Forms!frmFindStay!txtName. Value = "abc" 18. First display the SourceObject property:
You should see the text box changing on the form. ?Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList. SourceObject
10. The default property of a field is the Value, so this
statement should work the same way: The first part of this statement is the reference to sub-
Forms!frmFindStay!txtName = "def" StayList on frmFindStay. Now comes a dot saying that

Fig 5.1B Addressing the objects
frmFindStay
txtName
subStayList
+ fsubStayList
current record
Ctrl+G: Open the

Immediate window
we look for the SourceObject property of subStayList. Was this what you got? Try selecting another record on
The result is the name of the fsub. (Notice that our pre- the list and repeat the command.
fix rules help us distinguish between the subform con-
trol and the fsub connected to this control). Bang versus dot
21. Try using a dot instead of a bang before name:
19. Try setting SourceObject to nothing (an empty text ?Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList. Form. name
in quotes):
Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList. SourceObject = "" It doesn't print the name of the guest, but the name of
The subform in the user window becomes blank. the subform. Because of the dot, the statement asks for
Try setting it back again (it is a text, so remember the name property of the form.
the quotes.)
When you use the bang, you ask for a control on the
As soon as we set SourceObject, Access closes the fsub - or a field in the bound record behind the fsub.
previous subform and opens the new one. The Source-
Object property is a dialogue variable, so a change will Abbreviations. Above we have used the full address
not survive close and open. expressions, but Access allows various abbreviations.
For instance you may refer to the guest control of the
Form property. Above we looked at the SourceObject subform in any of these ways:
property, which is a text - the name of the fsub. But a
subform has another interesting property, Form. It is a Dot instead of bang
Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList. Form. address1
reference to the open form that is shown in the subform
area. You cannot see this property in the property box This works only because there is no address1 property
because it is not a text, but a pointer that only exists in in a form.
user mode. However, you can use the Form property in
VBA. Form omitted
Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList!guest
20. Try this command in the Immediate window:
?Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList. Form!name However, you cannot omit Form and use a dot at the
same time. Access will believe that you ask for a prop-
It should print the name of the guest selected in the erty of the sub-control.
subform area. The first part is the reference to sub-
StayList on frmFindStay. Now comes a dot saying that Warning. The bang mechanism works only in Visual
we look for the Form property of subStayList. The re- Basic. It doesn't work in SQL. For instance you have to
sult is a reference to the open form that is shown in the write
subform area.
... JOIN ON tblGuest.guestID = tblStay.guestID
Next comes a bang and a reference to the name field,
i.e. the address of a guest. Now which guest? The sub- If you write tblGuest!guestID, the system gives an error
form shows many records - which of the addresses will message.
we get? The address in the currently selected record.

5.2 Event procedures (for text box)
Above, we have executed VBA statements through the following sections we will sometimes write Me for
Immediate window, but when the user uses the system, emphasis, sometimes omit it.
we need another way to activate VBA. We want the
system to respond to user actions, for instance the user When is the AfterUpdate procedure called? Whenever
clicking a button, typing something in a text box, etc. the user shows that he has finished entering the text, for
These user actions are called events. You can write a instance when he clicks on another control in the same
VBA procedure for each kind of event. form, tabs to another field, or hits Enter. Try it:
AfterUpdate event 5. Enter a criterion in the name field, for instance "a".
We will now write an event procedure that makes Click Enter. The stay list should now shrink ac-
txtName respond when the user has entered a search cording to the new criterion. Enter another crite-
criterion. rion and use Tab. The system should respond.
1. Open frmFindStay, select the txtName search cri- 6. Change the criterion and then - without using En-
terion, and view the property box. (In Access 97 ter, etc. - click in another window, for instance the
you can only do this in Design mode.) property box. The stay list should not change be-
2. Look at the Event tab. It has a list of the events cause txtName still has the focus and Access as-
that the control can respond to (Figure 5.2A). The sumes that the user hasn't finished the field. Now
event we are interested in is AfterUpdate. It hap- click another field on FindStay. The stay list
pens when the user has finished entering the text in should respond.
the control.
3. Create event procedure. Choose AfterUpdate, the 5.2.1 More text box properties
three dots, and Code Builder. This creates the We will now make txtName respond each time the user
event procedure for AfterUpdate. hits a key. To do this, we need to act on another event,
OnChange. This event happens whenever the user
You are now in the Visual Basic window. You may types something in the text box or deletes a character.
make the window smaller so that you can see frmFind- When Access calls this event procedure, the situation is
Stay too. Also make the Access window smaller so that a bit complex because several properties of the text box
you can see the two windows side by side. are involved:
Inside the Visual Basic window you see the event pro- Value: This property is the value before the user
cedure for AfterUpdate (Figure 5.2A, right). The first started editing the text box. Note that Value is the
line reads default property for a text box, so if you don't spec-
Private Sub txtName_AfterUpdate ify another property in your address expression,
It shows that it is the AfterUpdate subroutine (proce- VBA will use Value. When the Value property is
dure) for the txtName control. empty, it has the value Null, similar to a database
field
4. The body of the procedure is initially empty. Now
enter this statement: Text: The value the user enters, but hasn't finished yet.
Me!subStayList . Requery This is the text the user sees on the screen, but it is
not yet stored in Value. You can only access this
Me. The word Me means the open form where this property when the text box has the focus. At other
control is placed - in this case the same as times, the Text variable doesn't exist at all. When
Forms!frmFindStay. We ask Access to find the the Text property is empty, it is a zero-length text
subStayList control. Finally we ask Access to call the with the value "", similar to a VBA string variable.
procedure Requery in this control. The result is that
subStayList recomputes the query behind the subform. OldValue: The value before the user started editing the
Since the query gets its where-condition from txtName, text. For bound controls (bound to a field in the
the stay list should change. database), this is the same as the value in the
database. When the entire record is complete,
Omitting Me. In most cases you can omit Me. You Access transfers Value to OldValue. OldValue is
may for instance write useful when the editing must be undone for some
subStayList . Requery
reason. For unbound controls, OldValue and Value
are always the same.
The exception is when some built-in function or
property has the same name as the control. In the

Fig 5.2A An event procedure
Click three dots.

Select Code Builder
Form
Form
module
Important Textbox attributes

Value: Last value completed by user (default attribute)
Text: What user sees during editing
OldValue: Value saved in database
Change event the value of txtName. This is why we moved Text to

We will now make txtName respond to each keystroke. Value.
Proceed in this way:
The last procedure line is more of a mystery. If you try
7. On the event tab for txtName, choose OnChange using the system without this line, the entire text box
and the three dots. You now see the event proce- becomes selected whenever you enter something. This
dure for the Change-event. seems to be an undocumented side-effect of setting the
Value. To compensate for it, we let the program define
8. Write these statements in the procedure body (Fig- what is selected. We define the selection start point
ure 5.2A): (SelStart) to be character 100 of the text. Since the text
Me.txtName = Me.txtName.Text is much shorter, Access interprets it as being the end of
Me.subStayList.Requery the text.
Me.txtName.SelStart = 100
This solution works, but not very well. If you for in-
9. Try it in user mode. As soon as you enter some-
stance try to change a few characters in the middle of
thing in the text box, the stay list changes accord-
the search criterion, the system annoyingly moves the
ingly.
cursor to the end of the text. We could repair it by
The first procedure line copies Text to the Value of the storing the position before we set the Value, and set it
control. As a result, Value becomes what the user has back afterwards. This is messy, and in the next section
entered until now. Then the program recomputes the we will show a more professional solution.
stay list. During this it gets the search criterion from

5.2.2 Computed SQL and live search " . . . like ('*" & they would write
We will now the professional solution. We don't
change Value at all, but compute the SQL-statement to " . . . like (""*" &
be used for the stay list. Let us first assume that the
The rule is that inside a text string, the characters ""
user has entered the search criterion john. The event
mean a single ".
procedure could then compute the list of stays in this
way:
Try it out
Me.subStayList.Form . RecordSource = _ You may try the solution right away, but take care. The
"select * from qryStayList where name like ( '*john*' );" next time you open frmFindStay and try to search,
Access remembers the SQL statement your program
This is one long Visual Basic statement split into two has set. It uses this statement as the initial query for the
lines by means of the space and underscore at the end future. (I would call this an error.)
of the first line.
To avoid problems do as follows:
Now, what does the statement do? The first line refers
to the open form in subStayList. The form has a record 1. In qryStayList, remove the user criterion that we
source property, which defines the records to display. defined earlier (like . . . ). We don't need it any-
We had bound the form to qryStayList, so the record more.
source was "qryStayList".
2. In fsubStayList, the record source is qryStayList.
Now the procedure changes the record source to the Change it to select * from qryStayList;
SQL statement in the second line. This statement takes
all records in qryStayList where the name contains 3. Change the event procedure and try it out (see
john. And it selects all attributes from the records. This Figure 5.2B).
is what we need.
You should now have a live search similar to the one
Notice that the SQL statement is a text surrounded by used in the real system.
double quotes. Inside the statement we have another
text string '*john*'. This text string is surrounded by (If Access still remembers the previous search crite-
single quotes to distinguish it from the large text. We rion, open frmFindStay in design mode and set once
haven't cared to write SELECT etc. with caps. The more the Source Object of subStayList to fsubStayList.)
SQL engine accepts the statement anyway.
Computed SQL may seem very cumbersome. Yes - it
The only problem is that john should be the text that is, no doubt! However, when we need complex user
the user has entered. So the event procedure has to criteria, for instance a combination of name and/or
compose the SQL statement from three parts, like this: phone and/or date, the easiest way is to let the program
compute the SQL statement. In general, computed SQL
"select * from qryStayList where name like ('*" & _ is the professional way to make complex systems.
Me.txtName.Text & "*');"
In the next section we will use computed SQL to deal
Note: Some developers don't use single quotes for the with combinations of search criteria, some of them live
text inside the text. They use double quotes for the and some lazy.
inner text. So instead of

Fig 5.2B Computed SQL and live search
Define new
record source
Compute SQL from Note single quotes

part1 & part2 & part3 around inner text strings
To make it work properly:

Remove the old user criterion from qryStayList.
Set record source of fsubStayList to: select * from qryStayList;
Change the event procedure as above. Try it out.

5.2.3 Composite search criteria Live search criteria
Figure 5.2C shows an example where the user can use In order to make a live search, the program must
one or more criteria in any combination - composite respond whenever the user has typed something. The
search criteria. The figure also shows the programmer partially finished criteria are used for the search, and
names of the various controls. The name criterion is the stay list shrinks gradually. While the user types, the
called txtName, the booked criterion chkBooked, etc. result is not in the box's Value, but in the temporary
variable Text. The other text box values are in Value.
The user may fill in part of the guest's name, and/or
parts of his address, etc. The user may also restrict the It would complicate the search procedure to deal with
search to booked stays, and/or checked-in stays, etc. this too. The solution is to let the event procedures
store the current criteria in the variables copyName,
To achieve this, the program must generate a suitable copyStreet and copyPhone. The event procedure
SQL statement for each combination of criteria. The txtName_Change shows how. The search procedure
pattern in the final SQL should be this, with optional uses these copies to generate the SQL statement.
parts shown in square brackets:
Note how we have declared the copy variables in the
SELECT * FROM ... WHERE TRUE first line of the form (see more in section 6.2).
[ AND name Like( "*john*") ]
[ AND address1 Like( "*buf*") ]
[ AND phone Like( "*3700*") ]
Lazy search criteria
[ AND arrival = #21-10-02# ] Some of the search criteria should not be live. The
AND (FALSE [ OR state=1 ] [OR state=2 ] check boxes, for instance, are either true or false. It is
[ OR state>2 OR ISNULL(state) ] ); sufficient to let their AfterUpdate procedure call the
search procedure and let it use the checkbox values. No
Notice that we start with a useless TRUE before the copy is needed.
optional AND's, and a useless FALSE before the
optional OR's. This is a trick that makes the program The arrival date might be live, but while the user types
far simpler. Each piece of the program doesn't have to the date, the intermediate value has little meaning. The
care whether it adds the first element to an AND/OR stay list would just flicker and confuse the user. For
list, or a later element. this reason, the arrival date reacts only at AfterUpdate.
The figure shows the program that generates the SQL Date comparison
statement. It gradually builds up the SQL-statement in In Figure 5.2C, the arrival date is a text box control
the string variable s. First it puts SELECT * . . . TRUE with the format property short date. Access will check
into s. Next it tests whether the name criteria holds that the text corresponds to a valid date. It will show
something. If so, it appends AND name Like . . . to s. the date according to the format property, but it will
And so on. Finally, it stores the SQL statement as the store it as a Double number - the number of days since
records source of the stay list. the end of 1899 (see page 11).
In the places where the pattern has john, buf, etc., the When generating the SQL statement, the program uses
program inserts the value from the appropriate text the CDbl function (Convert to Double) to show the
box. date as a number:
" AND arrival = " & CDbl(txtArrival)
Notice how we have written SQL parts in caps.
Professionals do so to make the SQL pattern stand out This would generate an SQL fragment like this:
more clearly. We explain the details below. AND arrival = 37550
Shared procedure Later, the SQL engine will compare the dates in their
When should this tricky piece of program be executed? number form, and everything works fine.
If the screen used an ordinary Search button, the
program should be the event procedure for the button. Why all this fuzz? Couldn't we simply write:
" AND arrival = " & txtArrival
However, we want to make a live search. In this case
the program must be executed whenever one of the When Access appends txtArrival, it converts it to text
criteria changes value, i.e. for a whole bunch of event format by means of the CStr function. This function
procedures. produces a date in the regional date format set up in
MS Windows. With a European date format, we would
The solution is to make the program piece a separate
get this SQL fragment:
procedure. It starts with Private Sub and ends with End AND arrival = 21-10-07
Sub (see more on procedures in section 6.2). The
appropriate event procedures call this procedure as SQL would reject it since dates have to be enclosed by
shown for txtName_Change, txtArrival_AfterUpdate # #. So what about this:
and chkBooked_AfterUpdate. " AND arrival = #" & txtArrival & "#"

Fig 5.2C Composite criteria
chkBooked
txtName
chkCheckedIn
txtStreet
chkOther
txtPhone
txtArrival
Dim copyName As String, copyStreet As String, copyPhone As String

Sub search doesn't know whether criteria
Private Sub search() frmFindStay3 are in Value or Text. So they are always here.
Dim s As String
s = "SELECT * FROM qryStayList WHERE TRUE "
If copyName <> "" Then s = s & " AND name Like( '*" & copyName & "*' ) " SELECT * FROM qryStayList WHERE
If copyStreet <> "" Then s = s & " AND address1 Like( '*" & copyStreet & "*' ) " TRUE AND name Like('*joh*') . . .
If copyPhone <> "" Then s = s & " AND phone Like( '*" & copyPhone & "*' ) "
if txtArrival > 0 Then s = s & " AND arrival = " & CDbl(txtArrival)
s = s & " AND (FALSE "
AND (FALSE OR state = 1 . . .
If chkBooked Then s = s & " OR state = 1 "
If chkCheckedIn Then s = s & " OR state = 2 "
If chkOther Then s = s & " OR state > 2 OR ISNULL(state) "
s = s & ");" . . . );
Me.subStayList.Form.RecordSource = s
End Sub
Private Sub txtName_Change()
copyName = txtName.Text
Call search
End Sub
Private Sub txtArrival_AfterUpdate()
Call search
End Sub
Private Sub chkBooked_AfterUpdate()
Call search
End Sub
Now we would get this fragment: state (a NULL state). Stays with a NULL state are not
" AND arrival = #21-10-07# real stays, but records generated by the outer join for
guests that don't have a stay.
Looks all right, but unfortunately, SQL expects dates in
the US format. In this case it would reject 21 as a non- Initialize the form
existing month, in other cases produce a wrong result. A final touch is to make the Find Guest screen
initialize itself properly:
Fortunately, the Access database engine can treat dates
as double numbers, but other databases may not. In • Let the three checkboxes have a mark initially.
such cases you would have to generate the dates with Otherwise, the stay list will be empty initially and
an explicit US-format, for instance in this way: the user may panic. To do this, set the initial value
" AND arrival = #" & Format(txtArrival, "mm/dd/yyyy") & "#"
of the boxes through their property sheet.
Empty texts
• Let the Form's Load event procedure call the
An empty field in the database has the value Null for
search procedure in order to make the stay list
all types of fields. The same applies for the Value in an
match the initial criteria:
empty text box. To test for an empty field , we would
ask for IsNull(f). In a VBA string variable, an empty Private Sub Form_Load()
text is a zero-length text with the value "". Since Call search
copyName is a string variable, we ask whether the text End Sub
is different from "".
Try it out
Null values You should try to make the solution work in practice. It
Notice how the program deals with Other stays, i.e. is a challenge, but fun. Make a copy of frmFindStay
stays that are neither booked nor checked-in. These and use it for the experiment.
stays include those with state > 2 and those without a

5.2.4 Event sequence for text box Tab key. BeforeUpdate shows that the user has fin-
We have now looked at two events for the text box, ished the field, but it is not yet accepted. Before
Change and AfterUpdate. However, there are many calling the event procedure, Access has copied Text
more, as you can tell from the Event tab in the property to Value. BeforeUpdate may check the value, and
box. (Select the event procedure and click F1 to get an in case something is wrong reject the update.
explanation of the event.) Figure 5.2D shows typical Rejecting the update means that focus remains on
event sequences for a text box. We will explain what the text box and no AfterUpdate event is generated
happens. yet. The user may edit the field or click Esc to set
the value back to its old value.
User clicks in the text box. First, the text box's Form
object may get a Current event. This happens if the If it is an unbound control (not connected to a
text box is in a record that wasn't selected before. database record), Access will also copy Text to
OldValue before calling the procedure. This is quite
Next, the text box receives two events, Enter and illogical because OldValue is intended for letting
GotFocus. Enter signals that now the control is the program restore an erroneous field. This is not
active. Before calling the Enter event-procedure, possible for unbound controls.
Access creates the Text property and sets it to the
current Value of the text box. GotFocus signals that Next comes the AfterUpdate-event. The value has
typing will now go to this control. been checked and the procedure may act on it. In
the example above we used this opportunity to re-
Then the textbox receives this series of events: compute the stay list. If it is a bound control, the
MouseDown, MouseUp, Click and maybe also a value will not yet be stored in the database, nor will
DblClick. OldValue be changed. Storing the value in the
database doesn't happen until the user moves to
User types an Ascii character. The text box receives another record or explicitly saves the record with
four events: KeyDown, KeyPress, Change, KeyUp Shift+Enter (or Records -> Save Record).
(plus mouse events if the mouse is used). KeyDown
occurs when the user depresses any key. The event Next comes the Exit event. It signals that the field is
procedure has parameters that give details of the not active anymore. Finally, LostFocus occurs and
physical key and other keys depressed at the same signals that typing will go to another control. When
time, for instance Shift and Ctrl. KeyPress occurs both events have occurred, the Text property disap-
when the key has generated an Ascii character, for pears.
instance a letter, digit, space, tab or backspace. All
of these correspond to characters in the Ascii al- What about KeyUp? It happens in the next field,
phabet. which accordingly receives the KeyUp event.
Before that, the next field receives Enter and
The Change event occurs when the visible content GotFocus - in the same way as if the user clicked in
of the control has changed, for instance that a char- the next field.
acter was added to the text or a character was de-
leted. Before calling this event procedure, Access What about errors in what the user has typed, for
updates the Text property so that it contains what instance an incorrect date? Access shows an error
the user sees. message to the user instead of calling Before-
Update, and the cursor remains in the field. Can't
The KeyUp event occurs when the user releases the the program interfere before this error message?
key. If the user keeps the key down to generate for Yes it can. The form receives a Form_Error event,
instance a whole sequence of x's, each x generates which may take action and cancel the error message
KeyDown, KeyPress and Change. The KeyUp oc- that Access was about to show (see section 5.5.10).
curs only when the user releases the key.
User clicks in next field. Access does almost the same
User types a non-Ascii character, for instance Arrow as when the user tabs to the next field. The only dif-
left or F6. This generates only the KeyDown-event ference is that there is no KeyDown event.
(and the KeyUp). Nothing happens to Text or
Value, and no Change event is generated. User moves to next record. First the text box in focus
will receive the same events as if the user moved to
User types Delete. Delete is not an Ascii character, so another control in the same record.
no KeyPress-event occurs. However, one or more
characters may be deleted, and then a Change event Next, the Form object receives three events.
occurs. KeyDown and KeyUp occur too. BeforeUpdate signals that the record is about to be
saved and that the program may check that values
User tabs to the next field. Access generates several are correct and consistent with each other. The Be-
events. KeyDown occurs since the user pressed the

Fig 5.2D Event sequence, textbox
User action Events Property changes before call

Click in textbox (Form: Current)
Enter. Text = Value, OldValue = Value
GotFocus.
MouseDown, MouseUp
Click, (DblClick).
Type Ascii character KeyDown, KeyPress.
(letter,digit, tab . . . ) Change. Text = Modified text
KeyUp.
Type ArrowLeft or F6 KeyDown, KeyUp.
Type Delete KeyDown.
Change. Text = Modified text
KeyUp.
Tab to next field KeyDown.
in same record BeforeUpdate. Value = Text. Unbound controls
(or Form: Error) also have OldValue = Text
(Program may cancel update)
AfterUpdate.
Exit, LostFocus. Text property disappears
Next field gets: Enter,
GotFocus, KeyUp.
Click in next field As tab to next field,
but no KeyDown event.
Move to next record Form: BeforeUpdate. (Program may cancel update)
Form: AfterUpdate. All bound controls in the form:
Database = OldValue = Value
Form: Current.
Click outside form LostFocus. (no action)
Click in form again GotFocus. (no action)
Click outside Access (no event)
foreUpdate procedure may cancel further event User clicks outside Access. The text box does not re-
processing so that the database is not updated. ceive any events (except for MouseMove events).
All properties survive. When the user clicks on the
If everything is okay, Access stores all the bound Form again - even on the title bar - focus will be
control values in the database and in OldValue, back at the text box, but it receives no events at that
then calls the AfterUpdate procedure. Finally, point.
Access calls the Current procedure to signal that a
new record is selected. The OldValue property allows the program to undo
changes to bound controls until the moment when the
User clicks outside the form, but inside the same form receives an AfterUpdate event. To undo a change,
Access window. Access generates a LostFocus the program sets Value=OldValue.
event to show that typing will go to another object
in Access. In this case the Text property does not Key Preview. In some cases we want a key or key
disappear. combination to perform the same thing no matter
which control is selected. One example is function
User clicks in form again. The active text box keys. For instance we may want F2 to mean Reset
receives a GotFocus event. The Text property has Criteria no matter where in the form the cursor is. This
survived. can be handled by letting the Form look at the key
before any control gets to know about it. See section
5.5.9 for this Key Preview function.

5.3 Visual Basic tools
Before we go on writing more complex event proce- All code modules may contain procedures and declare
dures, we will show some tools that Visual Basic of- variables. VBA offers three kinds of modules:
fers.
Form module. A form module has event procedures
1. Open a form in Design mode. Now click the Code for all controls on the form, and it may have ordi-
icon on the toolbar (close to the Toolbox icon). nary procedures too. It may declare variables.
When you open a form, you get an object based on
You are now in the Visual Basic window. (You might the form class. The object is a visible form and it
also get there by choosing an event procedure in the has a set of variables corresponding to the declara-
property box, as we did above.) tions.
Docking and undocking, Access 2000 and 2003 You cannot open several versions of the form just by
The Visual Basic window may contain many frames. In clicking multiple times in the database window, but
Access 2000 and 2003, they may be docked inside the you may do it from Visual Basic. Then you get more
window or undocked, i.e. floating as separate small form objects, appearing as other open copies of the
windows. By accident you may dock or undock them, form. Each copy has its own variables, but the same
and it may be very frustrating trying to get them back code. When the code uses addresses such as
where you want. So better learn how to deal with it: Me.txtName, it refers to the controls and variables of
this particular copy of the form.
2. Make sure the Visual Basic window occupies only
part of the screen. When you create a form, you don't get its form module
3. Make sure the Docking settings are all on: Go to until you create its first event procedure.
Tools -> Options -> Docking and make sure that all
the checkboxes are set. Close the option box. Class module. A class module corresponds to a class
4. Click the Project Explorer icon. The window may in other object-oriented languages. It has proce-
now look like Figure 5.3A with a list of forms at the dures and declares variables, and you can create
left (the Explorer frame) and some program code at multiple objects based on the class, each with their
the right. However, it may also show only the Ex- own variables. The only difference between form
plorer frame, or show the Explorer frame as a small, modules and class modules is that the latter are not
floating window. visible to the user and have no controls.
5. Drag the Explorer frame to somewhere outside the
Visual Basic window. The Explorer frame is now See section 5.7 on how to create modules.
undocked.
6. Drag the Explorer frame to somewhere inside the Module (simple). A simple module is similar to a class
Visual Basic window. The frame will dock some- but there is only one object based on the module.
where along a side of the window. Where it docks The system creates this object automatically. The
does not depend on where the frame is when you first versions of Visual Basic had no class modules,
release the mouse button. It depends on where the only simple modules.
mouse pointer is when you release the button.
7. Try dragging the frame around in the Visual Basic Code window
window. Notice that when the mouse pointer is To the right in the Visual Basic window, you see the
close to one of the sides, the frame changes to a thin code window with the Visual Basic program. Figure
line showing the new shape of the frame. Release 5.3A shows the code module for frmFindStay. You see
the button to dock the frame accordingly. three event procedures for the txtName control. You
8. Try double-clicking the title bar of the frame. The can scroll to other event procedures and controls, or
frame toggles between docked and undocked. you can select them by means of the two combo boxes
Leave it docked as on Figure 5.3A. at the top.
Project Explorer Creating an event procedure. Initially, the event pro-

To the left you see a list of all forms in the database. In cedures are not in the code, but if you select one of
object-oriented terminology, each form is a class. The them by means of the combo boxes, Visual Basic cre-
class has a code module with event procedures for the ates it. The same thing happens if you select an event
controls on the form. When you double-click a form on procedure through the control's property window.
the list, you will see the code module to the right in the However, Access doesn't always coordinate these two
Visual Basic window. things. You may experience that you have created an
event procedure in the code window, but it doesn't
The database may also contain code modules (classes) appear in the property box. As a result, Access never
that are not forms. They are shown at the bottom of the calls the event procedure. This may for instance happen
Project Explorer list.

Fig 5.3A VBA window and debugger
List of controls Project Explorer Object Browser Events in

the control
Project explorer:
One class per form
Code module
if you have created the event procedure while looking the code doesn't happen until you close the form it be-
at the code in debug mode (see page 82). longs to. Sometimes you may want to save the code
explicitly. Use File -> Save (or Ctrl+S).
The cure may be to select the event procedure from the
property box and compile the module (Debug -> Debug command and event logging
Compile), then close and open the form. The statement Debug.Print prints its parameters in the
Immediate window (also called the debug window). As
9. Create the missing event procedures for txtName as an example, when the AfterUpdate event occurs, the
shown on the Figure. Use the combo boxes to event procedure will print the text "After" followed by
create them. If you have followed the previous steps the current Value and Text. The event procedure for
closely, only the Enter procedure should be miss- Change behaves similarly, and as a result, the Immedi-
ing. ate window will show a log of what happened. Try it:
10. Type the debug statements shown in the proce-
dures, for instance: 11. Open the Immediate window with Ctrl+G. Adjust
Debug.Print "After", Me.txtName, Me.txtName.Text
the sizes so that you can see the Immediate window
When executed, this statement prints something in as well as frmFindStay.
the Immediate window. We will explain more on 12. Type something in txtName. The Immediate win-
the Debug statement below. dow should log what happens.
Note that VBA automatically capitalizes the words that This is the hard way to find out exactly which events
it recognizes. If it doesn't, it may be because you have occur and what the situation is at these points. During
spelled the word incorrectly, but it may also be because such experiments, you may want to temporarily disable
the word comes after the bang operator (!). VBA can- some statements. For instance, we might want to dis-
not recognize things after the bang at edit time, but it able one of the debug statements to avoid too many
will check all the words at execution time. At that time lines in the Immediate window.
it will give you an error message if it cannot recognize
the word. 13. Comment-away statements that you don't want for
the moment. Set an apostrophe (a "ping") at the be-
Deleting an event procedure. If you want to delete an ginning of the line. When you move the cursor, the
event procedure, simply delete all the lines of the pro- line turns green to show that this is a comment for
cedure. Don't try to delete it on the Event tab. humans only.
Closing the VBA window. You can close the VBA
window at any time. It only hides the window. Saving

Breakpoints and debug • Run (F5). The program continues in the normal
We are able to stop the program in the middle of an fashion.
event procedure. To do this, we set a breakpoint at the
code line where we want the program to stop. Figure • Step Into (F8). The program executes the next
5.3A shows a breakpoint in the last event procedure - statement, then stops again in breakpoint mode.
marked with a big dot in the left margin. Try it: With repeated use of F8, you can execute the pro-
gram step by step. If the program calls another
14. Click at the left margin of the Debug.Print line. The procedure, you will step into it statement by state-
dot should appear and the line be high-lighted as on ment.
the figure. You have set a breakpoint. (Clicking
again will remove the breakpoint. Don't worry • Step Over (Shift+F8). As F8, but if the program
about the line Msgbox. We will add it later.) calls another procedure, it executes all of the pro-
cedure without stopping, then stops at the return
15. Click in some other field on FindStay, then click in from the procedure.
txtName. This generates an Enter event in txtName.
As a result, the program stops just before executing Stop an endless loop. If the program gets into an end-
Debug.Print. less loop, you can stop it with Ctrl+Break.
16. Current value. Try moving the cursor to an ex- Pop-up help
pression, for instance the Debug parameter You have probably noticed that as you type a state-
Me.txtName. After a moment, VBA shows the cur- ment, Access often shows a list of what you can type at
rent value of this expression. You can see the value this point. You may bring up several kinds of lists:
of expressions in the procedure where the execution
stopped, but not values in other procedures because • Ctrl+J brings up the property list. It shows you
they are not active at present. the possible properties, procedures, and controls at
this point of typing. You may choose one with the
17. You can use the Immediate window to try out vari- Tab-key.
ous statements. The statements are executed as if
they were written where the breakpoint is. Try for • Ctrl+Shift+J brings up the Constant list. It shows
instance you the possible named constants at this point of
Me.txtName.Text = "abc" (should change the text in typing. (Ctrl+J may be used too, but it brings up
the form) the full list of named constants.)
? Me.subStayList.Form!name (should print the
name of the first guest in the list) • Ctrl+I brings up the Quick Info list. It shows the
data type you are dealing with, or the list of pa-
In section 5.1 we used the Immediate window with rameters to the procedure you call, or the value of
statements such as a named constant.
Forms!frmFindStay!txtName = . . .
Now you can use Me. The reason is that now the Im- Try the pop-up help
mediate window runs in the context of the event proce- 18. Start entering this statement in the Change proce-
dure. It can address the form object in the same way as dure (Figure 5.3B):
the program. MsgBox "test", vbYesNo
When you have typed MsgBox, use Ctrl+I to bring
Correcting bugs at breakpoints. Using the Immediate up the list of parameters. Notice that most of the pa-
window in connection with a breakpoint is an impor- rameters are optional (enclosed in brackets). When
tant way to find out what the program does. If you find you have typed the comma, bring up the list of pos-
an error in the program, you may usually correct it sible constants with Ctrl+Shift+J. Select the right
while at the breakpoint. However, sometimes VBA constant with the Tab-key.
cannot do the correction, for instance if you delete an
event procedure. It asks whether you want to "reset the When executed, the MsgBox statement will show a
project". This question sounds threatening, but simply message to the user and ask for a Yes or No. (In section
means "stop the program execution and restart it from 3.6, we used MsgBox to print messages for a tool-
the beginning". Nothing to worry about - nothing is based mockup.)
lost.
19. Put the cursor on RecordSource and use Ctrl+J to
Continue after breakpoint. When you have made bring up a list of possible properties and procedures
your experiments at the breakpoint, you can resume at this point.
ordinary program execution. There are several ways to
resume execution (Figure 5.3A): 20. Put the cursor on txtName and use Ctrl+J to bring
up a list of possible controls at this point.

Fig 5.3B Breakpoint, pop-up help and object browser
Property list
Ctrl+J
Debug actions:
Run F5
Step Into F8
Step Over Shift F8
Break Ctrl+Break
Open Immediate window Ctrl+G
Breakpoint
Quick Info Constant list
Ctrl+I Ctrl+Shift+J
Object Browser
F2
Classes Properties and

(objects) procedures for
the class
Sometimes a
good explanation.
Else use F1.
Object Browser (F2) and Help (F1) cursor on the word in the VBA code, then use F1. Usu-
The Object Browser gives an overview of the classes in ally you get good help. Try it:
Access, Visual Basic, and your own database. Open the
browser with F2 (Figure 5.3B). To the left you see a 21. Put the cursor on the word MsgBox and use F1.
list of the classes, to the right all properties and proce- You get an excellent explanation of the procedure
dures of the selected class (called "members" in the and its parameters.
window). In the figure we have selected the SubForm
22. Put the cursor on the word RecordSource in the
class. The right-hand side shows the properties and
code and use F1. You get a reasonable explanation.
event procedures.
23. The quality of the help information varies. Put the
For some properties and procedures, VBA shows a
cursor on the word Debug in the code and use F1.
good explanation at the bottom of the window, for oth-
You may get the message Can't find project or li-
ers you get a good explanation with F1 (Help). The
brary. Or you get an explanation, but not an excit-
Object Browser doesn't show all the classes available.
ing one. You may try F1 with the cursor on the
For instance you will look in vain for the Debug class,
word Print. You get a lot of information, although it
which we have used several times already.
is hard to find out what it means.
Another way to get help about classes, properties, and
language structures such as if-then, is to position the

5.4 Command buttons
When the user clicks a command button, it receives a This procedure sets the record source to the full list of
Click event. The event procedure must perform what stays, and it sets the search criterion to an empty text. If
the button is planned to do. We will look at a few typi- there are more search criteria, for instance also the
cal examples. phone number, they should be set too, of course.
Make a button open another form Other button events

We will first let the New guest button open a stay form The click event happens if the user clicks the button.
in the simplest way (Figure 5.4). What happens if the user tabs to the button and then
presses Enter? Or if the user uses a shortcut key? The
1. On frmFindStay give the NewGuest button the button doesn't notice. It receives a click event in all
name cmdNewGuest. (The usual prefix for a com- these cases.
mand button is cmd.)
A command button also receives the same events as a
2. Define the event procedure for the OnClick event. text box, for instance Enter, GotFocus, MouseDown,
The procedure body should be: KeyPress. There is rarely a need to do something for
DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay"
these events. A button doesn't receive Change, Before-
The object DoCmd can do various things. Here we use Update and AfterUpdate. These events deal with stor-
it to open a form. You can use PgDown to step through ing some data, and a command button doesn't store
all the stays, and even add a new stay at the end. anything.
Open a form to show only one record Default button and Cancel button
You may use OpenForm to open a specific stay: A form may have a default button. If the focus is
somewhere on the form or its subforms, and the user
3. Try to change the procedure body to presses Enter, the default button gets a click event.
DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , "stayid=2" (The exception is when the focus is on another button.
Then this button gets the click, of course.)
If you try it in user mode, you see that stay 2 is visible
and the user may edit it. Parameter 4 did the trick. It is You may define any button as the default. In the prop-
a filter - a text that automatically enters an SQL- erty box for the button, select the Other tab and set
WHERE clause and restricts the visible stays. In prac- Default = Yes
tice, the program must compute the filter text so that 2
in the example becomes the stayID the user has chosen. Access will automatically set Default = No for the
previous default button on the form.
Section 5.5.2 explains more about opening a form for
various purposes. Section 5.5.3 explains the many A form may also have a cancel button. If the focus is
parameters for OpenForm. somewhere on the form or its subforms, and the user
presses Escape, the cancel button gets a click event.
Make a button reset the search criteria You may select any button as the cancel button. In the
The real FindGuest window has a button for resetting property box, select the Other tab and set
the search criteria. Try to add it: Cancel = Yes
4. In design mode, add a button to frmFindStay. Give You will typically let the cancel button close the form
it the label Reset criteria and the name cmdReset. without saving anything. This can be done with these
statements in the event procedure:
5. Define the event procedure for the OnClick event. Me.Undo
DoCmd.Close
The procedure body should be:
Me.subStayList.Form.RecordSource = _
"select * from qryStayList; " The Undo procedure sets all fields on the form to their
Me.txtName = "" OldValue. As a result, Access will not save them at
close.

Fig 5.4 Command buttons, default and cancel buttons
Default button - responds at Enter:

Other tab -> Default = Yes
Private Sub cmdNewGuest_Click()

DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay"
End Sub
Or open only one stay:

DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , "stayid=2"
Cancel button - responds at Esc:

Other tab -> Cancel = Yes
Private Sub cmdReset_Click()

Me.subStayList.Form.RecordSource = "select * from qryStayList; "
Me.txtName = ""
End Sub

5.5 Forms
Forms are very complex. They handle many events and Activate( ). This event signals that the form, or one of
have many properties. Below we explain the more its controls, will get the focus (the title bar becomes
important ones. blue). The event doesn't occur when the user clicks
from another application. Subforms never receive
5.5.1 Open, close, and events an Activate event. They are active when their main
In Visual Basic you can open a form in this way: form is active.
DoCmd.OpenForm "name of the form"
GotFocus( ). This event occurs only when the form
OpenForm can have many parameters, as explained in has no controls that can get the focus.
section 5.5.3. You can close the form that is in focus
with Current().This event occurs at open no matter whether
DoCmd.Close the form is bound to the database or not. For bound
forms, it also occurs when the user moves to
As an example, a button on the form could close the another record, for instance with PageDown. This
form in this way. When the user clicks the button, the event is the place to update controls that depend on
form is in focus. the current record, for instance detail windows.
If you want to close another form than the one cur- When Current is called during open, the form is
rently in focus, you can specify the form through two still invisible, but the controls have the right value.
parameters, for instance: When Current returns, the form becomes visible.
DoCmd.Close acForm, "frmStay"
Dirty(Cancel). This event occurs the first time the user
The parameter acForm says it is a form. The last pa-
edits some bound data in the current record. The
rameter is the form name.
event occurs right before the Change event of the
An alternative is to set the form in focus, and then control changed by the user. At return the Form
close it, for instance like this: property Dirty becomes True.
Forms!frmStay.SetFocus
DoCmd.Close BeforeUpdate(Cancel). This event occurs when the
form has data that is about to be saved in the data-
Event sequence base. The event is an opportunity to check consis-
During open and close, the form receives many events. tency between pieces of data before they are saved.
Figure 5.5A gives an overview.
The event procedure may set Cancel=True to stop
Open(Cancel). This is the first event that the form re- saving and let the user change the data. It may also
ceives. At this point in time, the various data struc- use Me.Undo to restore the old values and in that
tures in the form have been created, including all way skip the saving.
controls. The subforms have been opened and have
received their first Current event. Most controls BeforeUpdate will occur when the form is to be closed
also have the right value, but some have not. The or when focus moves to another record on the form.
form is invisible to the user at this point. The event Canceling the update means that the form will not be
procedure may set the parameter Cancel=True, closed or focus not moved.
thereby refusing to open the form.
BeforeUpdate will not occur when focus moves to an-
Load event( ). Next the form receives a Load event. other Access form. However, it will occur when focus
The form is still invisible, but all unbound controls moves to a subform on the same form, or when the user
have a value. Controls bound to a database record switches to a different tab sheet on the same form. This
may still not have the right value. Accessing data in makes it difficult to maintain consistency between data
the database proceeds in parallel with opening the in the main form and data in its subforms.
form, and bound controls gradually get the right
value. AfterUpdate( ). This event occurs when values have
been saved in the database. Also the OldValue
Resize( ). This event occurs during opening of the properties have been set to the saved values. The
form, and when the user resizes the form by drag- event is an opportunity to act on the new data.
ging its borders. The event procedure may adjust
the controls on the form to better utilize the avail- Unload(Cancel). This is the first event when a form is
able space. As an example, a subform area may ex- closed. The event procedure may check that every-
pand and contract in step with the main form. See thing is okay. If it returns Cancel=True, the form
section 5.5.13. will remain open.

Fig 5.5A Event sequence, Form open and close
User action Events Property changes before call

Open Open(Cancel) The Form and its controls are created, but not
visible. Some controls are not initialized. Subforms
are open. The procedure may refuse to open the
form (Cancel=True).
Load All controls are initialized, except bound ones.
The Form is still invisible.
Resize (Opportunity to reposition controls)
Activate (Signals that the form will get focus)
(GotFocus) (Only for Forms where no control can get the
focus)
Current A current record has been selected. Bound controls
have a value. At return, the form becomes visible.
Edit Dirty First time the user edits some data in the record.
PageDown, BeforeUpdate(Cancel) Some bound fields to be saved.
etc. The procedure may refuse to save.
AfterUpdate Bound fields saved. All values = OldValue.
Current Form is invisible. A new record is current.
At return, the Form becomes visible.
Click in BeforeUpdate(Cancel) As for PageDown.
subform AfterUpdate As for PageDown.
Close Unload(Cancel) Form to be closed. The procedure may refuse and
the form stays open.
Deactivate (Signals that the form will lose focus)
Close At return, the form becomes invisible and the
subforms are closed. Memory is released.
Deactivate( ). This event signals that the form will lose ues on the form's data tab. You can change them at run
focus. It occurs during close and when the user time through Visual Basic:
clicks in another main form. It doesn't occur when
the user clicks in another application. Subforms AllowEdits. If True, the user can edit fields in existing
never receive a Deactivate event. records. Default=True.
Close( ). This is the last event the form receives. The AllowDeletions. If True, the user can delete a record
form is still visible and all subforms are still open. with the Del key. (Requires that the record selector
When Close returns, the form becomes invisible, all is displayed in the form.) Default=True.
subforms are closed, and data structures are deleted.
AllowAdditions. If True, there will be an empty record
5.5.2 CRUD control in Forms at the end of the list for adding new records.
When you create a form in the default way and open it Default = True.
with DoCmd.OpenForm, the user is allowed to step
Filter. A text that works as a WHERE clause in the
through all records, and add several new records. De-
query behind the form. For instance, you may set
pending on circumstances, we may want a more re-
filter to "stayID=740". The result will be that the
stricted behavior. We may for instance want the user to
user only sees the stay with ID=740. (Don't write
see and edit only one single stay. Or we may want the
the word WHERE itself.)
user to create only one new record.
FilterOn. If True, the Filter property works and selects
CRUD and filter properties records. If False, the filter has no effect. FilterOn is
The way to control this is through the following prop- a property that you cannot see in the form's prop-
erties, called CRUD properties because they specify erty box, but you can set it through the program or
Create, Read, Update, and Delete of records (Figure
5.5B gives an overview). You can see their initial val-

the Immediate window. The user can toggle Filter- This trick assumes that Access is configured for DAO
On with the filter icon on the toolbar. 3.6 (see section 5.6). The statement works on the open
recordset bound to the form. It moves current record
AllowFilters. If True, the user is allowed to set filters back or forth a number of records, and as part of this it
on and off through icons on the toolbar. The pro- saves the current record. In our case we move zero
gram can always set filters independently of Al- records away - to the same record. But we get the
lowFilters. update anyway. (See more in section 5.6.3.)
DataEntry. If True, the user will not be able to see old Create a single record
records. If AllowAdditions is also True, the user is In order to create a single record without seeing exist-
allowed to add new records. If the program sets ing records, set these properties in the form's property
AllowAdditions to False while the user is editing a box (see overview in Figure 5.5B):
new record, the user is allowed to finish editing the AllowAdditions = True
record, but cannot add further records. Default = DataEntry = True
False.
This will still allow the user to enter a record and then
Setting DataEntry to False has an undocumented move on to enter a new record. To avoid this, block
side effect: It also sets FilterOn to False, in that further record creation when the first record is updated:
way blocking filters set up by the program. In this
Private Sub Form_AfterUpdate()
case, let your program set FilterOn after setting
Me.AllowAdditions = False
DataEntry. End Sub
All of these properties are dialog variables that don't Open the form with
survive closing of the form. What you have specified in DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay"
the form's property box are simply the default value for
these variables. You may try out the properties in this Prevent two blank lines in datasheet
way: The method above for creating a single record works
okay when the Form is shown in normal mode. In
1. Open frmStay in Datasheet mode. You should see Datasheet mode, however, the user may be confused at
all records from the stay query. At the end of the what happens. The user sees the blank record at the end
datasheet you should see an empty line for entering of the datasheet, but as soon as he starts typing in it,
a new record. another blank line appears.
2. Open the Immediate window with Ctrl+G. Adjust Access creates the second blank line right after calling
the sizes so that you see the datasheet and the Im- the Dirty-event procedure. However, it is impossible to
mediate window at the same time. Try to change adjust things at this point because the user's character
the settings with statements such as: hasn't yet ended where it should be.
Forms!frmStay.AllowAdditions = False
Forms!frmStay.Filter = "stayid=740"
Forms!frmStay.FilterOn = True
The solution is to store something in the new blank
The datasheet should change accordingly, removing record before the user types anything. This initiates a
the empty line, showing only one record, etc. temporary record for further editing. Then AllowAddi-
tions is set to False to prevent further new records. This
See and edit a single record can be done at the Current event:
In order to see and edit a single record, set these prop- Private Sub Form_Current()
erties in the form's property box (see overview in Fig- If Not IsNull(Me.someField) Then Exit Sub
ure 5.5B): Me.someField = " "
AllowEdits = True Me.AllowAdditions = False
AllowDeletions, AllowAdditions, DataEntry = False Me.someField = Null
End Sub
Then open the form with a filter, for instance:
DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , "StayID=2" The first statement checks whether something has been
stored in the field to be initialized. In this case the user
In practice, the program must compute the filter text so has selected an existing record and nothing should be
that 2 in the example becomes the stayID the user has done now. The next statement stores a space in the
chosen. field. This creates the temporary record. Next Allow-
Additions is set to False. This prevents further records
Update the record. When the user enters something, it being created. Finally the field is set back to the initial
is not stored in the database until he closes the form (or empty state.
enters a subform). Sometimes storing is needed earlier.
The program can do it with this statement: The solution must be extended with means to add an-
Me.Recordset.Move(0) other record, for instance a button or a response to
Enter. Care must also be taken not to leave empty

Fig 5.5B Controlling Open, CRUD, and filter
Form properties: CRUD and Filter
AllowEdits
DataEntry
Deletions
Additions
AllowEdits: See and edit data
Allow-
Allow-
AllowDeletions: Del-key works
AllowAdditions: Empty record at end
DataEntry: Old data invisible To see and edit a single record: True False False False
Filter: e.g. StayID=740 (Also set the filter)
FilterOn: Use filter To create a single record:
AllowFilters: User-controlled filter Initially x False True True
At Form_AfterUpdate x False False True
acFormEdit True True True False
acFormAdd True True True True
acFormReadOnly False False False False
acFormPropertySettings (default) x x x x
DoCmd.OpenForm “frmStay”, view, , “StayID=5”, CRUDproperties, windowMode, openArgs
acDesign Filter name Filter acDialog Available to the

Datasheet ? Form procedures
acFormDS acHidden
view
acNormal acIcon
acPreview acWindowNormal
Print
preview
records in the database in case the user doesn't enter user can do anything to the records. At run time
something. these settings overrule the initial settings from the
Form's property box.
5.5.3 The OpenForm parameters
From VBA you normally open a form with As another example, acFormPropertySettings (the
DoCmd.OpenForm. A lot of parameters determine default), doesn't set any of the CRUD properties but
what goes on (see the details on Figure 5.5B). lets the initial settings rule.
Form name. The first parameter is the name of the WindowMode. Specifies whether the form is to be
form, for instance "frmStay". shown as a dialog box, a hidden window, an icon,
or a normal window. A dialog box keeps the focus
View. The second parameter specifies whether the until the user closes it. It has borders that cannot be
form is to be shown in design view, as a datasheet, resized. A hidden window is like a normal window
as a normal form (default), or as a preview of a except that it is invisible. The event procedures can
print. make it visible with me.Visible=True. The window
mode acIcon seems to have no effect.
Filter name. The name of a query, for instance
"qryStay". (I have not been able to figure out what OpenArgs. This parameter is stored in the property
this parameter does.) OpenArgs in the Form. It can tell the event proce-
dures in the Form what to do. The parameter might
Filter. A WHERE condition for the records to show, for instance specify whether the form is to be used
for instance "StayID=5". for creating a new record or viewing an existing
one, in this way allowing the Form to do it in its
CRUDproperties. A choice of CRUD combinations own way. Below we show how this is used in the
that determine whether records can be edited, hotel system to let the same form handle a new
added, etc. Figure 5.5B shows that acFormEdit sets guest, a new stay, or an existing stay.
AllowEdits, AllowDeletions, AllowAdditions to
True and DataEntry to False. In other words, the

5.5.4 Multi-purpose forms (hotel system) distinguish. StayID is >0 in the first case, and Null in
In the hotel system we use frmStay for creating guest the last two cases. Notice that stayID exists even if the
and stay records, as well as editing existing records. list is empty and CurrentRecord is zero. The value of
Using the same Form is an advantage to the user (for stayID is just Null.
recognition) and for the developer (he needs to main-
tain only one Form). When stayID>0, we open the form with OpenArgs=-1.
We also have to set the filter so that only this stay is
Now, how does the Form know what it should do? visible. The WhereCondition-parameter to OpenForm
OpenArgs is intended for such things. In the hotel sys- allows us to do this in a simple manner. If the user for
tem, we use OpenArgs in this way: instance has selected a line with stayID=740, the
WhereCondition has to be the text
• OpenArgs < 0: Open an existing stay. The stayID=740
WhereCondition parameter in the OpenForm In the program we compute this text by concatenating
statement selects the right one. the text "stayID=" with the current stayID using the &-
• OpenArgs = 0: Create a new guest and a new operator. StayID is a number, but Visual Basic converts
stay. it to a text before the concatenation.
• OpenArgs > 0: Create a new stay for an existing
guest. OpenArgs is the guestID for the existing When stayID is Null (or a number <=0) we have an
guest. error situation. The program may show a message
using MsgBox, but in our case we just make the pro-
Figure 5.5C shows the full solution. It deals also with gram beep. The DoCmd-object can do this too. (Us-
error cases where the user for instance clicks the ability tests show that users understand what is wrong
ShowStay button, but hasn't selected a stay. The Find without any message explaining about it.)
Guest screen has three buttons for opening a stay. The
figure shows the three click-event procedures. FrmStay, Load event
Inside frmStay an event procedure must take care of
cmdNewGuest setting the right CRUD properties. Access calls the
This is the simplest of the buttons. Independent of what Load-event procedure during open, and this is the place
the user has chosen, the button should create a new we set the CRUD properties. Figure 5.5C shows the
guest and a stay for him. What is needed is to open the procedure. Let us follow the path through the code for
form with OpenArgs=0. each of the three cases.
cmdNewStay OpenArgs is < 0: We open an existing stay. The

Here we have two situations. (1) The user has selected WhereCondition parameter has set the filter, so we
a line, and thus a guest. (2) The list is empty so the user don't have to do much. The procedure just executes the
has not chosen anything. The property CurrentRecord last line, which sets AllowAdditions to False.
allows the program to distinguish the two situations.
CurrentRecord gives the sequential number of the se- OpenArgs = 0: We must create a new guest record and
lected record. It is zero if nothing is selected. If the list a new stay record. First we allow additions and data
is empty, we might claim it is an error to make a new entry. Data entry means that existing records are not
stay for a non-existing guest, but it turns out that users visible, so the current record is a new "blank line".
find it natural to create a new guest in this case. So this FrmStay is bound to a join of tblGuest and tblStay, so
is what the program does; it opens the form with Open- the current record will now consist of Null data for the
Args = 0. If a line is selected, it opens the form with guest as well as the stay. In order to create the records,
OpenArgs = guestID. we have to store something in them.
Notice the If-Then-Else-EndIf construct that makes the First we set the guest name to a single space character.
program choose alternative paths, either executing the This creates a new guest record, and Access gives it an
Then-statements or the Else-statements. The line- AutoNumber. Notice how we address name with a
breaks must be as shown, with Else and EndIf on lines bang ( ! ) to distinguish it from the built-in Name prop-
of their own. erty.
Notice also the comment we have put after Then to Next we set the foreign key of the stay record to this
explain to the reader what situation the program deals guest. This creates the stay record and also links it
with after Then. properly to the guest. Then we set the name back to a
Null so that the user doesn't see a name starting with a
cmdShowStay space when he enters the guest name. Notice the
Here we have three situations. (1) A stay is selected. strange use of square parentheses. We explain more
(2) A guest without stay is selected. (3) The list is about them below.
empty. In the last two cases, the program cannot open a
stay. The current value of stayID allows the program to

Fig 5.5C Edit or create connected records through a form
Bind to one
old Stay
Bind to old Guest

+ new Stay
Bind to new Guest

+ new Stay
Private Sub cmdNewGuest_Click()

DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , , , , 0 OpenArgs
End Sub
Private Sub cmdNewStay_Click()

If Me.subStayList.Form.CurrentRecord = 0 Then 'No guest selected
DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , , , , 0
Else frmFindStay
DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , , , , Me.subStayList.Form!guestID
End If
End Sub
OpenArgs
Private Sub cmdShowStay_Click()
If Me.subStayList.Form.stayID > 0 Then 'Stay selected
DoCmd.OpenForm "frmStay", , , "stayID=" & Me.subStayList.Form!stayID, , , -1
Else
DoCmd.Beep
WhereCondition.
End If
Becomes the Filter
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()

' OpenArgs: -1: existing stay, filter set; 0: new guest; >0: new stay for existing guest, OpenArgs = guestID.
' Assumed CRUD settings: AllowEdits = True, DataEntry = False.
If OpenArgs >= 0 Then ’ NewStay or NewGuest
Me.AllowAdditions = True frmStay
Me.DataEntry = True ’ Don't see existing records
If OpenArgs = 0 Then ’ NewGuest
Me!name = " ” ’ Set blank name to create a dummy guest. Access makes guestID
Me.[tblStay.guestID] = Me.[tblGuest.guestID] ' Create a stay record. Access makes stayID
Me!name = Null ‘ Remove the blank name
Else ‘ New stay for existing guest
Me.[tblStay.guestID] = OpenArgs ‘Create a stay record. Access makes stayID
End If
End If
Me.AllowAdditions = False ' All cases. No more additions
End Sub
Finally we set AllowAdditions to False so that Page- Finally we set AllowAdditions to False to prevent fur-
Down will not bring the user to a new empty record. ther record creation.
OpenArgs is > 0: The guest exists already and Open- The strange [ ]
Args is the guestID. First we allow additions and data The program has a strange use of square parentheses.
entry. Data entry makes the current record a new The reason is that the query behind the form has two
"blank line". Next we set the foreign key of the stay guestID fields, one from each table. None of these are
record. This creates the stay record and links it to the visible on the form, but they are available anyway as
guest. Access automatically joins it to the guest, so the fields. The SQL-engine has given them the names
guest data is now in the "blank line".

tblStay.guestID and tblGuest.guestID There are several ways to open a dialog box:
In SQL-view of the query they sometimes appear as Message box

[tblStay].[guestID] and [tblGuest].[guestID] • Use the MsgBox function, for instance:
MsgBox "the message", vbYesNo+vbQuestion
However, when we address them in Visual Basic, we
have to write This opens a box with the message and shows a num-
Me.[tblStay.guestID] and Me.[tblGuest.guestID] ber of buttons (Yes and No in the example), plus an
icon (a question bubble in the example). You can check
Confusing? Yes, very, but Visual Basic needs these the return value to see which button the user chose, for
parentheses to indicate that tblStay.guestID is one sin- instance:
gle name. If MsgBox("the message", vbYesNo) = vbYes Then . . .
Note that we use the dot-operator after Me to address Notice that we write MsgBox with parameters in a pa-
these fields. This allows us to use Ctrl+J to get a list of renthesis when we need to look at the return value. Use
all properties and fields. You will find tblStay.guestID F1 to see the help information about MsgBox. There is
on the list, but you have to add the parenthesis your- an excellent explanation of all the details.
self.
Multi-line message
See the mechanisms live When the message is more than one line, you have to
The Load event is the more interesting part of the solu- compose it in this way:
MsgBox "line 1" & Chr(10) & "line 2", vbYesNo
tion. You may try it out in this way:
1. Open frmStay and use the property sheet to give it a Chr(10) is the new-line character, or more precisely a
Load-event procedure. Type in the procedure from text consisting of the new-line character. In Visual
Figure 5.5C. Set a breakpoint at the first line. Close Basic you cannot write a new-line character inside the
the form. text string itself.
2. Open the Immediate window with Ctrl+G. Now Use OpenForm with acDialog
simulate the NewStay button with this command in • Make a Form in the usual way with data fields,
the Immediate window: buttons, etc. Open it with DoCmd and the acDia-
docmd.OpenForm "frmstaymono",acFormDS , , , , ,2 log parameter, for instance:
DoCmd.OpenForm "form name", , , , ,acDialog
3. The command starts opening the form and will
show it in Datasheet mode. The Load procedure OpenForm sets the right border on the form and makes
stops at the breakpoint, but the form is not yet visi- it modal. There is no return value. The form has to
ble. Make it visible with this command in the Im- store results somewhere, for instance in global vari-
mediate window: ables or in the database.
me.Visible = True
Set the dialog properties of the Form
4. The form should now appear in Datasheet mode. The last way to make a dialog box is to set the Form
Step through the Load procedure with F8 to see properties yourself:
what happens to the datasheet. When the procedure
sets DataEntry, the datasheet should reduce to a • On the Format tab for the form, set Border Style to
blank line. When the procedure stores OpenArgs in Dialog. The effect of this is that the border of the
the record, the guest data should appear in the blank Form is narrow and the user cannot drag the bor-
line. ders to change the size.
You may try out the other cases in the same manner. • On the Other tab set PopUp to Yes. When you
open the form, it stays on top of other forms. It is
5.5.5 Dialog boxes (modal dialog) not modal however. You can work with other
Many of the boxes you see in Windows applications forms while the dialog form is open.
are dialog boxes. When a dialog box pops up, you have
to fill in what is asked for and then close the box. You • On the Other tab set Modal to Yes. In Access 97
cannot look around at other windows until you have this makes the form modal. When open, the user
closed that dialog box. This is a modal dialog. One cannot work with other forms. In Access 2000 and
example is a message box. Another example is the Op- 2003 the Modal property has no effect at all (al-
tions box that many applications have. though the help text says it has).
A dialog box is a special case of a Form. Apart from You may then open the form with DoCmd.OpenForm
being modal, it has narrow borders, and the user cannot without specifying the acDialog parameter.
drag the borders to change the size of the box.

5.5.6 Controlling record selection The filter is a condition to be used by Access in a hid-
A bound form is connected to a record set (a database den WHERE clause when retrieving the Form's record
table or a query). At any given time one of the records set. It is a computed text. For instance, when the user
is the current record. When you see the recordset in selects guest 2, the text becomes
guestID=2
datasheet mode, the current record is marked with an
arrow. When you see it in Form mode (normal mode)
Scroll to a record
only the current record is visible.
Next we will look at the situation where we want to
In many cases we want the program to move to another navigate to the guest, but the user should be allowed to
current record. Figure 5.5D illustrates some ways to do move back and forth from there. In this case we cannot
this. The Form is bound to tblGuest and shows one use the filter. The solution is to work directly on the
guest at a time. At the top of the form we have added Form's recordset. The AfterUpdate procedure for the
some navigation controls. One is a combo box where combo box could look like this (top right of the figure):
the user can select a guestID from a drop down list. Private Sub cboGuestID_AfterUpdate()
The list shows guestID as well as guest name. There Me.Recordset.FindFirst ("guestID=" & Me.cboGuestID)
are also two buttons that navigate to the previous and ' Might also be written without a parenthesis
the next record. End Sub
Move and see one record The recordset has a FindFirst function with a condition
First we will look at the situation where we want to as a parameter. It finds the first record in the set that
navigate to the guest selected by the guestID. The user matches this condition. Then it makes this record the
should not see other guests than this one. current record.
The solution is to set the filter properties of the Form The two arrow buttons also work directly on the re-
when the user selects something with the combo box. cordset. They use the MovePrevious and MoveNext
The AfterUpdate procedure for the combo box could functions for moving current to the previous or next
look like this (top left of the figure): record. Actually, these buttons do the same as Page-
Down and PageUp. Section 5.6 explains more about
Private Sub cboGuestID_AfterUpdate() recordsets.
Me.FilterOn = True
Me.Filter = "guestID=" & Me.cboGuestID
End Sub
Fig 5.5D Controlling record selection
See only Scroll to

guestID=2 guestID=2
Unbound Scroll to
control previous
Scroll to
next

5.5.7 Column order, column hidden, etc. SelTop (attribute, read and write). The number of the
When a form (or subform) is shown in table view, the top row in the selected area. The first record in the
user can rearrange and hide columns. To rearrange table behind the form is row 1, the next 2, etc.
columns, the user selects a column and drags it to a Notice that the first records may be scrolled out of
new position. To hide it, he selects the column and uses sight.
Format -> Hide columns.
SelHeight (attribute, read and write). The number of
The program may need to know these settings or it may rows selected. If SelHeight is zero, no area is
need to change them. selected, but the record is still selected.
Remember that each column corresponds to a control SelWidth (attribute, read and write). The number of
on the form (section 3.2.1). As an example, column 2 columns selected. Hidden columns are included. If
on Figure 5.5E corresponds to a text box control bound SelWidth is zero, no area is selected, but the record
to the description field of the table. The column is still selected.
heading (Class) is the label associated with the text box
(or the name of the text box if there is no label). SelLeft (attribute, read and write). The number of the
left column in the selected area. In Access 97 the
The program can detect and set column order, etc. columns are numbered from 1 and up. In Access
through these three attributes of the controls: 2000 they are numbered from 2 and up when an
area is selected.
ColumnHidden (attribute, read and write). True or
False. Beware: The strange change from 1-based numbering
to 2-based numbering must have puzzled quite a
ColumnOrder (attribute, read and write). The number number of developers. Obviously it is an error. The
of the column. Columns are counted from 1 and up situation is even stranger when only a record is
in the sequence that the user sees. However, hidden selected, but not an area. In this case you set SelLeft
columns are included in the counts. with 1-based numbers, but retrieve it with 2-based
numbers.
ColumnWidth (attribute, read and write). The width of
the column measured in twips (see section 5.5.13). If columns have been reordered, their numbers follow
If the program sets ColumnWidth to -2, the width is what the user sees. However, hidden columns are
adjusted to fit the data in the column. Width = -1 included in the counts.
means a default width. Width = 0 makes the column
hidden (and you have to explicitly unhide it - Keeping the area selected
setting the width is not enough). In the hotel system, the user selects rooms through a
form like Figure 5.5E. In principle this is easy.
Example: Suppose the program needs to change the However, as soon as focus moves from the subform to
column width of Class (the description control) in the main form, Access removes the area selection. This
Figure 5.5E. An event procedure on the main form happens for instance when the user clicks a button in
could do it in this way: the main form. The event procedure behind the button
wouldn't even know which area was selected.
Me.subRoomGrid.Form ! description.ColumnWidth = 1500
The program has to compensate for Access's strange
behavior. When focus leaves the subform, the Exit
5.5.8 Area selection, SelTop, etc. event procedure saves the area size attributes before
When a subform is shown in table view, the user can
Access removes the area selection. When some control
select a rectangular area of the subform. Figure 5.5E
on the main form gets the focus, its event procedure
shows an example where the user has selected column
sets them back. There is no common event on the main
3 and 4 from the fourth and fifth row (see more about
form that can do it, so each control has to act.
the room grid in sections 7.4 and 7.5).
Main form
The program can detect which area the user has
In the main form, declare these variables:
selected. The figure shows how we can try it out
through the Immediate window (Ctrl+G). We address Public aWidth As Long, aHeight As Long, aLeft As Long
the first open form, its subform control, and the ' These variables keep track of the current area size. aleft is
subform it is bound to. When asking for the value of the correct column number, not the Access2000 distortion.
SelTop is not saved since current record always is the top.
SelTop, we get 4 because the top row in the selected
area is record number 4. The following procedures on the main form update and
use these variables (shown in the Access 2000 version).
As the figure shows, we can also change the area size
and location. We have changed the area width to 2. The
following four attributes of the form control the area.

Fig 5.5E Selected area, SelLeft, SelTop, SelWidth, SelHeight
SelTop = 4
ColumnHidden = False SelLeft = 4 (3 in Access 97)
ColumnOrder = 2 SelHeight = 2
ColumnWidth = 920 (twips) SelWidth = 2
Private Sub subRoomGrid_Exit(Cancel As Integer) But what happens if the user clicks a cell to move the
' This event happens when focus moves from the subform to
area to another room? Access will remove the area
the main form. Save the current area size before Access
removes it. selection and the user will just see the cursor flashing
aWidth = subRoomGrid.Form.SelWidth in the cell he clicked. The user may drag the cursor to
aHeight = subRoomGrid.Form.SelHeight select an area, or use Shift + click, but it is not
aLeft = subRoomGrid.Form.SelLeft - 1
intuitive. The program should make sure that a suitable
' -1 to correct for the Access2000 error
End Sub area is selected at any time.
Private Sub resetSelection() ' Shared procedure One problem is that as soon as the user clicks a cell,
subRoomGrid.Form.SelWidth = aWidth Access removes the area selection before calling any
subRoomGrid.Form.SelHeight = aHeight
event procedure. The program cannot catch the old
' Make sure to set Width and Height before setting Left
subRoomGrid.Form.SelLeft = aLeft + 1 selection at this point.
' +1 to compensate for the Access 2000 error.
End Sub The solution is to let the program act at MouseUp and
KeyUp. There are two situations:
Private Sub txt . . ._GotFocus()
' Reset the area size when a main-form control gets the focus.
Call resetSelection()
An area is selected: This happens if the user expanded
End Sub the area with Shift + arrow key, or if the user
dragged an area with the mouse. The program
. . . (GotFocus for other controls) should save the area size.
Private Sub subRoomGrid_Enter()
No area is selected: This happens if the user has
' When focus moves from the main form to the subform.
Access removes the area selection just before this event clicked a cell or moved to the cell with an arrow
(Access 2000 only). So reset the area size key. The program should reset the area size so that
Call resetSelection() the selected cell becomes the top left of the area.
End Sub
Each single control on the subform has to react this
User actions in the subform way. Although there is a Form_MouseUp and a
The solution above works fine when an area is selected Form_KeyUp, they don't respond to clicks inside the
in the subform. For the hotel system, the program grid. They respond only to clicks on the grid border,
selects a suitable area corresponding to a free room. If i.e. the headings and the record selectors.
the user clicks Check in, for instance, everything is
okay. In the hotel system, fsubRoomGrid has one control for
each column in the grid. The names of these controls
If the user expands the area by means of Shift + arrow are cbo1, cbo2, etc. (see section 7.5 for details). So we
key, everything is fine too. need these procedures on the subform:

Public Sub saveSelection() ' Save the current area selection 5.5.9). It must handle arrow keys and tabs to the left
after key up or mouse up, or reset it after clicks, etc.
or right by setting SelLeft and aLeft - after
If SelHeight = 0 Then ' No area selected. Reset area.
' Check first that the new area is within the grid. checking that the area is inside the grid, of course.
SelHeight = Parent.aHeight Setting SelLeft causes Access to not remove the
SelWidth = Parent.aWidth area.
End If
Parent.aWidth = SelWidth Form_Current()
Parent.aHeight = SelHeight
Parent.aLeft = SelLeft - 1 ' Access 2000 compensation
Is called when the user uses arrow up or down, or
End Sub clicks in a new row. It is called before MouseUp or
KeyUp occurs. Sets SelWidth and SelHeight early
Private Sub cbo1_KeyUp(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As on to avoid flicker. If Current doesn't do anything,
Integer)
Call saveSelection()
the area will be set at MouseUp or KeyUp, but
End Sub Access will remove the area in between, causing
flicker.
Private Sub cbo1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As
Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
Call saveSelection() Getting the selected data
End Sub When a function acts on the selected area, it needs to
know which data the area contains. If the area is only
. . . (KeyUp and MouseUp for the other controls) one row high, it can directly address the controls in the
current subform record. In general, however, it needs to
Notice that when saveSelection resets the area size, it
retrieve data for several rows. The data has to be
should first check that the area is within the grid. The
retrieved from the recordset bound to the form.
user may for instance have clicked at the far right with
a wide area selected. One solution is to retrieve a number of rows from the
recordset by means of the GetRows property. Here is
Also notice how the program uses Parent to address
an outline of the solution for the hotel case.
the saved area size.
In the main form, declare a variant array:
This solution works okay. The user can use mouse or
keyboard to move an area around in the grid. However, Dim A()
the screen flickers. It is clearly visible that Access ' The A-array will receive a number of records
removes the area selection before the program resets it.
Below we explain how to deal with it. The basic idea is to use this piece of code inside the
button event procedure:
By the way, since the subform saves the area size on its
A = Me.subRoomGrid.Form. Recordset. GetRows(n)
own, there is no reason that the subform control on the
main form saves it too. So the event procedure
We address the subform (fsubRoomGrid) in the usual
subRoomGrid_Exit may be removed.
way. The property Recordset is the recordset bound to
the subform. The property GetRows copies n records
Clicking in the grid border from the current record and on. It stores the copies in
If the user clicks in the grid header, Access selects the the array A.
entire column. If he clicks in the record selector in the
left border, Access removes the area selection and While the area size and position is 1-based (and 2-
selects the record the user clicked. In both cases we based), the A array is zero-based. As a result, A will
want the old area selection to be reset. hold this:
The place to deal with this is the MouseUp procedure A(0, 0): The first field in the first record.
for the subform, Form_MouseUp. It should set the area A(0, 1): The first field in the second record.
size in the same way as saveSelection(). However, here A(1, 0): The second field in the first record.
is another Access error. Access refuses to change ... and so on.
SelHeight etc. The work-around is to start out with
SelHeight = 0 As a side effect, GetRows moves the current record
This is necessary even if SelHeight is 0 already (at forward so that it points to the row after the selection.
least in Access 2000). To avoid this, use the built-in clone of the recordset,
make it point to the current record, and then copy the
Avoiding flicker rows through it:
It is possible to avoid the flicker by letting the program
take action before Access removes the area selection. Me.subRoomGrid.Form.RecordsetClone.Bookmark = _
Two event procedures on the subform are involved: Me.subRoomGrid.Form.Recordset.Bookmark
A = Me.subRoomGrid.Form.RecordsetClone.GetRows(n)
Form_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
This is the Key preview procedure (see section Section 5.6 explains more on this.

Dealing with re-ordered columns Parent form
A small problem remains. If the user has re-ordered the If you try it, you may notice that F2 works okay if the
columns in the datasheet, the order of the record fields focus is in the main form, but not when it is in the sub-
and the datasheet columns don't match. form. You have to define key preview actions also for
the subform if F2 is to work here too. However, from
To overcome this, use the ColumnOrder property of the the subform you have to address the items in the main
subform controls. This property gives you the column form slightly differently:
number (1-based) for the control. The ControlSource
' In the subform:
property of the control gives you the field name that
Me. Parent. subStayList. Form. RecordSource = _
the control is bound to. See section 5.5.7 for more on "select * from qryStayList; "
ColumnOrder. Me. Parent. txtName = ""
5.5.9 Key preview Me refers to the subform, and Me.Parent refers to the
When the user clicks something on the keyboard, the parent form, i.e. the master form.
control in focus will receive several key events. How-
ever, the Form can have a look at the key events before Return value
the control gets the events. This is useful when no spe- At return from the preview procedure, Access contin-
cific control has to take action. ues processing the event. It sends it to the control in
focus, or makes its own response to the event. In case
One example is function keys. For instance we may of F2 the control ignores F2, but Access has a standard
want F2 to mean Reset Criteria no matter where in the response: it toggles between selecting the entire field
form the cursor is. For the Find Guest window it can be and just showing the simple cursor.
done in this way:
The preview procedure can skip further processing by
• On frmFindStay, open the Form-property box, se- setting KeyCode=0 at return. In case of F2, the result
lect the Event tab and set Key Preview to Yes. would be that Access didn't toggle between field selec-
tion and the simple cursor.
• Define an event procedure for the Form's KeyDown
event. It should look like this: 5.5.10 Error preview
Access detects various kinds of user errors, for instance
Private Sub Form_KeyDown (KeyCode As Integer, _ that the user enters a non-existing date, or the user
Shift As Integer)
If KeyCode = vbKeyF2 Then forgets to select a related record where referential
Me.subStayList. Form. RecordSource = _ integrity is required. Access will show an error
"select * from qryStayList; " message that often is entirely gibberish to the user.
Me.txtName = "" When for instance the referential integrity is violated,
End If
End Sub Access will say:
The KeyDown event has two parameters. KeyCode (an You cannot add or change a record because a related
integer) shows which key is pressed. There are prede- record is required in table 'tblGuest'.
fined constants for the various keys. For instance
vbKeyF2 means the F2 key, vbKeyA the A-key and How can the program show a meaningful message
vbKeyEscape the Esc key. instead? The BeforeUpdate procedure is intended to let
the program check the data, but when Access detects
If the procedure returns with KeyCode = 0, Access the error it doesn't even call BeforeUpdate.
stops further processing of the KeyDown event.
However, the Form has an Error event procedure that
Shift (an integer) shows whether some of the shift keys can interfere before Access shows the error message to
were down at the same time (Shift, Alt, Ctrl). There are the user. To use it, define the event procedure for the
predefined constants for the shift keys: acShiftMask Error event:
(=1), acCtrlMask (=2), acAltMask (=4). The program
Private Sub Form_Error(DataErr As Integer, _
can for instance test whether Shift and Ctrl are down at Response As Integer)
the same time with this statement If DataErr = 3201 Then
If Shift = acShiftMask + acCtrlMask Then . . . MsgBox "Select a guest", vbOKOnly + vbExclamation
Response = acDataErrContinue
In the example above, the procedure tests whether the End If
End Sub
F2 key was used. In this case it sets record source to
the full list of stays, and it sets the search criterion to an The Error event has two parameters. DataErr is an ID
empty text. for the error. Response tells Access what to do at re-
turn. When Response = acDataErrContinue, Access
will not show its own error message. When Response =

acDataErrDisplay (the default), Access will show its Let user break a loop - SendKeys
own error message. Assume the user should be allowed to stop the periodic
updating. It is easy. Provide a button labeled Stop. Let
In the example, the event handler tests whether the its click procedure set the timer interval to 0.
error is "You cannot add or change . . ." (ID 3201). In
this case it shows a message box with a more user- This works because when the Form waits for the timer,
oriented text. Then it tells Access to keep its mouth it also responds to user events. It will handle the events
shut about the error. in the sequence they occur.
At return, Access keeps the focus on the Form where Now imagine that the Form runs a long calculation or
the error occurred, so that the user can correct the data - scans the Internet for hours. It runs in a loop and it
or use Esc to undo changes. This happens no matter doesn't wait for events at any point. How can we allow
whether Response is acDataErrContinue or not. the user to break the loop? If we provide a Stop button
as above, the user may click it, but the Form doesn't
The main problem when using the Error event is to find listen to events. However, Access stores the event in a
out what the error ID means. I have not been able to queue for later processing.
find a list of the codes.
The user could use Ctrl+Break. It will in a very rough
Don't confuse the Error event with VBA's handling of way stop the program, probably in the middle of
program errors. The Error event handles errors caused something, so that data is left in an inconsistent state.
by the user's actions. VBA handles cases where the Actually, Ctrl+Break is the only way you can stop a
program tries to divide by zero, access a non-existing very long-lasting database query. In this case the
object, etc. VBA has statements such as On Error database engine takes care that the database ends up in
GoTo x to let the programmer deal with the error. See a consistent state. For a long calculation in our own
section 6.1 for a detailed explanation of this kind of program, we need a structured way to stop.
error handling.
The trick is to let the program use SendKeys every now
5.5.11 Timer and loop breaking and then to generate an event and wait for the event to
A Form responds to user actions such as editing a field be processed. This allows Access to process all events
or clicking a button. Sometimes we want the Form to in the queue. It also allows Access to update the screen,
act on its own. It might for instance update a list of data for instance to show controls that the program has
every minute. This would be useful in a multi-user changed during the calculation.
application where several people update the database.
Here is an outline of such a program. We declare a
Timer handling module-level Boolean in the Form, which becomes true
Start the timer by setting the Form's TimerInterval, for when the user clicks the Stop button:
instance in the Form's Load event procedure:
Dim bStop As Boolean
Me.TimerInterval = 60 000 ' One minute is 60 000 ms.
When Access responds to the click, this event
Next define an event procedure for the Timer event: procedure sets bStop:
Private Sub Form_Timer() Private Sub cmdStop_Click()
Me.Requery bStop = True
End Sub End Sub
When the Form opens, it sets the timer interval to one A long computation runs in a loop until the computa-
minute and waits for some event. The event may be the tion is finished. Once in the loop it displays the
user doing something or one minute having passed. progress of the computation by storing a result in a text
When the minute has passed, Access calls the Timer box control. It could look like this:
event procedure, which recalculates all bound data in
the form. Private Sub cmdCompute_Click() ' Plain loop
While . . . ' Until calculation is finished
. . . ' One step in a long calculation
The next timer event will occur one minute after the
txt . . . = . . . ' Display progress
first timer event, even if the recalculation has taken Wend
several seconds. How would the program stop the timer End Sub
events? Set the timer interval to 0:
In order to respond to the stop, we modify the loop so
Me.TimerInterval = 0 ' Stop the timer. that it runs until bStop is True or the computation is
finished. In addition we use the SendKey operation to
send a character to Access and wait for Access to

process it - and process other events too. Here is the Set stay1 = New Form_frmStay
Call stay1.Init(740)
new program:
stay1.Visible = True
Private Sub cmdCompute_Click() ' Test once in loop Set stay2 = New Form_frmStay
bStop = False Call stay2.Init(753)
While Not bStop And . . . ' Until stop or calculation finished stay2.Visible = True
. . . ' One step in a long calculation
txt . . . = . . . ' Display progress The first line declares two references to an open form,
SendKeys "{home}", True ' Type a character and wait.
' Allows Access to handle all events and stay1 and stay2. The declarations may be in a global
' update the screen. module that remains open as long as Access is open.
Wend
End Sub In an event procedure somewhere else, the statement
Set stay1 = . . . creates a new object of the class
SendKeys has two parameters. The first is a string of Form_frmStay. The reference stay1 will now refer to this
characters. They are sent to Access as if the user typed object. During the creation, the form object receives the
them. The second is a Boolean. If it is True, SendKeys usual open-events: Open, Load, Activate. The form is
waits for Access to process all pending events and still invisible.
update the screen. The string can hold several
characters, e.g. "abc{home}+-". Special characters are When we open a form in this way, we cannot give it
shown as a mnemonic in { }. We have chosen {home} OpenArgs like those we use with DoCmd.OpenForm.
since it is a rather harmless character in the user dialog. The form has a property called OpenArgs, but it is
ReadOnly so we cannot store anything in it. For this
SendKeys takes around 1 ms on a plain computer. In reason we have written a procedure for initializing the
the IT world this is quite slow. If the calculation step form, the procedure Init. We call it with a parameter
for instance takes 0.01 ms, the program suddenly that tells it to open stay 740. The procedure will set the
becomes 100 times slower. filter of the form to show this stay.
One solution is to let the program listen and update the Finally, we set the Visible attribute of the form to True.
screen only once a second. In the procedure below, we This generates the Current event and makes the form
use the Time() function to find out when a second has visible.
passed. It returns the number of seconds since
midnight, with fractional seconds too. The Time Then we repeat the whole thing using stay2 instead of
function itself takes around 0.0005 ms, so it will rarely stay1. The result is that one more form instance opens,
slow down the loop significantly. this time showing stay 753.
Private Sub cmdCompute_Click() ' Test once a second Closing the forms
Dim startTime As Double
Usually the form closes itself, for instance when the
bStop = False
startTime = Timer() +1 user clicks the close button. Access automatically sets
While Not bStop And . . . ' Until stop or calculation finished references to it to Nothing. We may also close the form
. . . ' One step in a long calculation by setting references to it to Nothing, like this:
If Timer() > startTime Then ' A second has passed
txt . . . = . . . ' Display progress Set stay2 = Nothing
startTime = startTime + 1 ' Next in one second
SendKeys "{home}", True ' "Type" a character and wait.
' Allows Access to handle all events and The reason we have stay1 and stay2 in a global module
' update the screen. is that they have to be there all the time. If we made
End If them local variables in a procedure, the opened forms
Wend would close as soon as the procedure returned. See
End Sub
more about variables and their life-time in section 6.2.
5.5.12 Multiple form instances Handling many open forms
When we open a form with DoCmd.OpenForm, we get When we need many open instances, we have to make
only one instance of the form. If we try to open it an array of references. A click event could then open a
again, nothing happens. new instance in this way:
In order to open multiple instances, we need to use the Dim stay(1 To 10)
basic VBA mechanism of creating an object. Here is a ...
program piece that opens two instances of frmStay: Private Sub cmdOpenStay_Click( )
' Find an unused reference, let it be j
Dim stay1 As Form, stay2 As Form Set stay(j) = New Form_frmStay
' References to open forms Call stay(j).Init( . . . )
... stay(j).Visible = True
End Sub

5.5.13 Resize For subforms it may be necessary to change the width
When the user drags the border of a form, Access calls not only of the subform control, but also of the subform
the Resize event procedure of the Form. The procedure itself. See below.
is called for every few pixels the user drags, depending
on how fast he drags. Access also calls the Resize pro- Size unit
cedure once during open. All positions and sizes are computed in twips.
One twip is 1/20 typographical point =
If the program doesn't do anything at these events, the 1/567 cm =
user will just see a larger or smaller gray area. Usually 1/1440 inch
the user expects that the controls somehow adjust to the
new size, for instance that a subform area expands or Resizing a form
contracts. It is easy to change the width of a control, so it is
tempting to change the width of a form in a similar
The way to handle this is to let the Resize procedure way:
recompute sizes and positions for the controls. Figure me.WindowWidth = me.WindowWidth + dif
5.5F shows a simple example. The form has a couple
of controls, one of them being a text box (txtTest) and However, this works in none of the Access versions.
another a subform (subTest). As the user drags the You have to use this statement to change position or
right border, these controls adjust their width so that size of a form:
they keep the same distance from the right border of
the form. Care must be taken when a control becomes DoCmd.MoveSize right, down, width, height
so narrow that it cannot keep its distance from the bor-
der. Trying to set its width to a negative number will right: Distance between form and the left side
cause a run-time error - and the mouse gets trapped of the surrounding Access window. (The
inside Access! On the lower version of the form, the same as the property WindowLeft.)
text box has width zero, and as a result the controls down: Distance between form and the top of the
don't adjust their width anymore. surrounding Access window. (The same
as the property WindowTop.)
At the time Resize is called, the situation is as follows: width: The width of the form including the
frame. (The same as the property Win-
me.WindowWidth: The new width of the form, in- dowWidth.)
cluding the border. height: The height of the form including the
me.WindowHeight: The new height of the form, in- frame. (The same as the property Win-
cluding the border. dowHeight.)
me.WindowTop: The distance between the form and
the top of the surrounding Access window. In order to increase the width of the form by dif, you
(Access 2003 only). have to set the form in focus and use
me.WindowLeft: The distance between the form and
the left side of the surrounding Access window. DoCmd.MoveSize , , oldWidth + dif
(Access 2003 only).
When you do this, the form receives a Resize event.
The figure shows the Resize procedure. It declares two
important variables: Resizing a subform
Resizing with DoCmd works fine for a main form, but
formWidth: The previous width of the form. When the not for a subform. You cannot bring the subform in
form opens, the variable has its default value, focus. However, it doesn't matter because an open sub-
zero. It is declared as Static, meaning that it sur- form automatically has a width that matches the sub-
vives from one call of Resize to the next. form control.
dif: The difference to add to the control widths. Ini-
tially, when the form opens, dif becomes zero. When resizing the subform control, you just have to
Later, it is the difference between the new form make the program resize and/or reposition the controls
width and the previous form width. on the open subform too. You can do this from the
Resize procedure in the main form. It soon becomes
The procedure computes the new width of txtTest, the messy to let the main form know about the controls
smallest of the controls. When the new width is larger inside the subform. So a better approach is to call a
than zero, it adjusts the widths of txtTest and subTest. procedure in the subform that resizes its own controls,
It also saves the new form width in order to calculate in much the same way as its resize procedure would do
future changes relative to this. it.
When the subform is shown as a datasheet, it has no

effect to adjust widths and heights of the controls. In-

Fig 5.5F Resizing a form
Private Sub Form_Resize()

Static formWidth As Long ' Initially zero, survives calls
Dim dif As Long ‘ The width adjustment
dif = IIf(formWidth = 0, 0, Me.WindowWidth - formWidth)
If Me.txtTest.Width + dif > 0 Then
Me.txtTest.Width = Me.txtTest.Width + dif
Me.subTest.Width = Me.subTest.Width + dif
formWidth = Me.WindowWidth
End If
End Sub
down =
WindowTop
height =
WindowHeight
Resizing and moving a form:

DoCmd.MoveSize right, down, width, height
right = width =
WindowLeft WindowWidth
stead of setting the width, set the ColumnWidth prop-

erties of the controls (see section 5.5.7). You might for
instance extend all the columns in a proportional way.

5.6 Record sets (DAO)
When we need complex record handling, there are two letes them when it returns from the procedure. Initially
ways to go: through SQL statements that update they both have the value Nothing.
records, or through programmed record access. In this
section we look at the latter possibility. The SQL way Computed SQL
is explained in section 7.1) The statement s="SELECT . . . " computes a text and
stores it in the variable s. If the form shows stay 728,
Select the database model. Before you can try the then s will hold this text:
following example, you should make sure that your SELECT * FROM tblRoomState
program accesses the database with the right method. WHERE stayID=728;
Over the years, Access has used different methods to It is an SQL statement that selects all fields from the
access the tables, trying at all times to be compatible RoomState records that belong to the stay. As you see,
with earlier versions. Below we will use the DAO ap- the program computes this SQL statement from three
proach which works across all Access versions. Access parts, the text "SELECT . . . ", the expression
97 is born with DAO, but in Access 2000 and 2003 you Me.stayID and the text ";".
have to select DAO. Do as follows:
If you are not fluent in SQL, it may be easier to make
1. Open Visual Basic and select Tools -> References. the query with the query grid. Then switch to SQL-
You now see a list of the libraries that Access may view and copy and paste the statement into the pro-
use. At the top of the list, you see those selected at gram. VBA makes a lot of noise about this non-VBA
present. When VBA looks for a built-in class name, statement, but just modify the statement with quotation
it first looks in the top library. If the name is not marks, &-operators, and so on. As usual, don't care
there, it looks in the next library, and so on. about capitalization. SELECT may for instance be
written with small letters. VBA doesn't look at what is
2. If MicroSoft DAO 3.6 Object Library is not se- inside the quotes and the SQL-engine doesn't care
lected, go far down the list and select it. Next move about caps.
it to the top of the list. The easiest way is to close
the list, then reopen it. Now DAO 3.6 is in the top Warning. You may wonder why we have to compute
list. Move it further up as far as it can go. Then the SQL. When working with the query grid, we could
VBA will find the DAO 3.6 names first. write things like
WHERE stayID=Forms!frmStay!stayID
There is no reason to restart the system. You may no- Why don't we write something similar here, for in-
tice that in the Object Browser and with Ctrl+J you will stance
WHERE stayID=Me.stayID
now see two RecordSet classes. Use the one with an
Edit property. The answer is that in VBA we compose the final SQL-
statements directly. When working with the query grid,
5.6.1 Programmed record updates Access translates our SQL-statement into the final SQL
As the first example we will outline how the CheckIn version. As part of this, Access finds the current value
button on the Stay form could work (Figure 5.6A). of Forms!frmStay!stayID and inserts it into the SQL-
string that it passes to the database engine. In other
3. Open frmStay in design view. (If you followed the
words, it does the same kind of work that our VBA
earlier exercises closely, there are no buttons on the
program does.
form.)
Open the Recordset. The statement
4. Create a Book button and a CheckIn button and Set rs = CurrentDB.OpenRecordset(s)
give them names with the cmd prefix. creates a Recordset and stores a reference to it in rs.
The command Set says that we want to store the ref-
5. Define the event procedure for the OnClick event erence, not the Recordset itself. CurrentDB is the da-
on the CheckIn button. Figure 5.6A shows the body tabase currently used by the program, and we ask it to
of the procedure. It demonstrates many new things open a record set that gives us the records specified by
that we explain below. the SQL statement in s. When Access has opened the
record set, the first record in the set becomes the cur-
Declarations. The first lines of the procedure declare
rent record. If the set is empty, there is no current
two variables. The variable s can hold a text string. The
record, and End Of File (EOF) is true.
variable rs can hold a Recordset, or more precisely, it
holds a reference (a pointer) to a Recordset. These While loop. The statements from While to Wend are a
variables are local for the procedure, which means that loop. The four statements inside the loop are repeated
VBA creates them when it calls the procedure, and de- until rs.EOF becomes True. This happens when the
program tries to move the current record beyond the

Fig 5.6A Recordset, updating records
Set StayState to CheckedIn and

set all its RoomStates to CheckedIn
Declare variables.
Private Sub cmdCheckin_Click() Local for this procedure.
Dim s As String
Dim rs As Recordset Compute SQL
s = "SELECT * FROM tblRoomState WHERE stayID=" & Me.stayID & ";"

Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(s)
While Not rs.EOF

rs.Edit Repeat to End Of File frmStay
rs!state = 2 ‘ CheckedIn
rs.Update
rs.MoveNext Update FindGuest window
Wend Me.Recordset.Move (0) ‘ Save records
Me!state = 2 Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList.Requery
rs.Close ‘ Not needed when rs is a local variable
End Sub
end of the set. If the record set is empty, EOF is True Move to next record. The rs.MoveNext statement
from the beginning and the loop terminates immedi- moves to the next record, that now becomes the current
ately. record. If there is no next record, EOF becomes True
and the loop will terminate. When EOF is true, there is
Updating a record. The first statement inside the loop no current record in the record set, and attempts to
starts editing the current record. VBA transfers the address fields in it will fail.
fields to an edit buffer. If we don't transfer the fields to
the edit buffer, the program can read the fields but not Updating the stay record. When the loop is finished,
change them. the program sets Me!state to 2, thus updating the stay
record as well.
The next statement changes the state of the RoomState
record to 2, meaning CheckedIn. The change takes Close the Recordset. The last statement closes the re-
place in the edit buffer - not in the database table. No- cord set. It is customary to do so, but in this case it is
tice the bang-operator that ensures that we get the field, unnecessary. When the procedure returns, VBA will
not a possible built-in property. delete the local variables. Since rs contains a reference
to a record set, it will close it before deleting rs.
The rs.Update statement transfers the changed fields to
the database table. At this time Access checks that Try the program
mandatory fields are filled in, that referential integrity 6. Close the program and try out the CheckIn button.
is okay, etc. There are several ways the program can You should see the state field change in the stay
catch these errors so that the user doesn't see the cryp- window.
tic messages produced by Access. See sections 5.5.10
and 6.1. 7. To ease experimentation with the system, program
the Book button so that it does exactly the same as

CheckIn, but sets the states to one, meaning navigating in it. The current record is the one the pro-
Booked. gram can access with rs!fieldX. The operations
rs.MoveNext and rs.MovePrevious
Update the stay list. You may notice that the Find- move current one record ahead or back. There are other
Guest window doesn't update its own stay list auto- Move operations too:
matically. In this list, the stay doesn't seem to change to rs.Move(n), rs.MoveLast and rs.MoveFirst
CheckedIn, etc. It is tempting to repair it by letting The first one moves current n records (forward or
CheckIn make a requery on the stay list. Try it: backwards depending on the sign of n). The next two
move current to the last or first record in the record set.
8. Insert this statement at the end of the CheckIn and
Book procedures: If the program tries to move beyond the last record,
Forms!frmFindStay!subStayList.Requery rs.EOF becomes True. If it tries to move before the
first record, rs.BOF becomes True.
9. Try to book and check in while watching the stay
list. Nothing changes in the list. Why? In order to edit the current record, we have to move it
to the edit buffer with the operation
Because the stay state is not yet saved in the table. rs.Edit
Saving doesn't happen until the user closes the stay When we have finished editing it, we move it back to
window, but at that time the Requery has been per- the record set with
formed already. rs.Update
If we move to another record without using rs.Update,
One way to deal with the requery is to do it in the the changes will be lost.
AfterUpdate procedure for the stay form. This event is
intended for things to be done after the update, i.e. after Clone. Figure 5.6B also shows a Clone object. It is
saving the stay and guest records from the query. How- another set of navigation properties working on the
ever, in our user dialog we don't want the user to close same record list. It has its own current record pointer.
the stay window all the time. He might want to change By means of clones, the program can access several
other things for the stay. Here is a tricky way to update records in the list at the same time. It may for instance
the stay record before doing the requery: compare two records in the list, one accessed with the
record set and one accessed with the clone.
10. Insert this magical statement in CheckIn and Book
just before the Requery: To the right in the figure, you see how a Clone is cre-
Me.Recordset.Move(0) ated and used. You declare the clone rc exactly as a
record set. However, instead of opening the clone, you
This statement works on the open recordset bound to ask the record set rs to create a clone of itself. You may
the form. It moves current record back or forth a num- now use rc exactly as the record set itself, for instance
ber of records, and as part of this it saves the current moving the current record of rc back and forth. We
record. In our case we move zero records away - to the have shown how you could compare the current record
same record. But we got the update anyway. (See more of rc with the record of rs.
in section 5.6.3.)
Add a record. The figure also shows how to create
11. Try to book and check in while watching the stay new records. First we use rs.AddNew to fill in the edit
list. It should now update automatically. buffer with a Null record. Next we fill in the fields we
want, and then we use rs.Update to create a new record
Notice that this version of CheckIn and Book is very
in the record set and transfer the edit buffer to it. Be-
experimental. In the real system we have to check
fore doing rs.Update, Access will check that referential
many things. For instance we shouldn't be able to book
integrity is okay, that mandatory fields are filled in, etc.
someone if he hasn't any rooms. The action of Book
should also depend on the current state of the stay, for Delete a record. Finally the figure shows how to de-
instance so that if the user tries to book a stay that is lete a record. We simply use rs.Delete. After this there
checked in, the system asks him whether he wants to is no current record. When we execute rs.MoveNext,
undo the checkin. the record after the deleted record will be the current
record.
5.6.2 How the record set works
Figure 5.6B shows how a record set works. The record
set consists of a record list and some properties for

Fig 5.6B Recordset, clone, add and delete
BOF
Recordset ...
Dim rs As Recordset, rc As Recordset
s = "SELECT * . . . “
Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(s)
Set rc = rs.Clone
MovePrevious Edit buffer
Current record If rs.roomID = rc.roomID Then . . .
MoveNext While . . .
rs.AddNew Add
rs!fieldX = . . . records
rs.Update
Clone rs.MoveNext
MovePrevious Edit buffer Wend
Current record
MoveNext While Not rs.EOF
rs.Delete Delete
rs.MoveNext records
EOF
Wend

5.6.3 The bound record set in a Form The current record moves one record ahead and the
Above, the program has explicitly created a record set. form will show the next stay.
However, when we open a form such as frmStay it be-
comes bound to a record set. Can our program refer- 6. Use the clone. Try moving the current record of the
ence this record set explicitly? Yes, it can. clone with this statement
Me.RecordsetClone.FindFirst("stayID=740")
Figure 5.6C shows how it works. We have opened
This causes the clone to point to the first record with
frmStay directly from the database window, and al-
stayID=740 (use another stayID to match your own
though the form shows only one stay at a time - the
data). You cannot see any effect of this on the form,
current record, we can scan through all the stays with
because the form is bound to the record set, not to the
PageDown. Behind the form is a record set with all the
clone.
stays. We can access this record set with Me.Recordset.
Furthermore, Access offers a clone of this record set, 7. Now try to move the record set to the same place as
called Me.RecordsetClone. the clone. To do this we use the Bookmark concept.
Bookmarks are built-in, unique identifications of
Access uses Me.Recordset in much the same way as
the records in the record set. They are generated
our program would do with a record set. There are
when the recordset is opened and don't survive
small differences, however. When the user for instance
closing the set. The property Recordset.Bookmark
types something into a field, Access doesn't use the edit
is the bookmark of the current record. You can read
buffer, but a hidden buffer of its own. (This hidden
the bookmark property and set it. Try this:
buffer deals with the Value and Text properties of text Me.Recordset.Bookmark =
controls.) If our program tries to do something with Me.RecordsetClone.Bookmark
Me.Recordset, Access will first save the hidden buffer
and call BeforeUpdate and AfterUpdate for the The form should now show stay 740 (or the stay you
changed record. have chosen). What happened? VBA read the book-
mark for the current record in the clone. Then VBA
Try the mechanisms at work (also shown on Figure moved current to this bookmark.
5.6C):
This approach is often useful when we want to let the
1. Set a breakpoint in the beginning of the CheckIn user move from one record to another, for instance
procedure on frmStay. based on a complex criterion. The program first finds
the record using the clone, in that way avoiding that the
2. Open frmStay in form view and also open tblGuest user sees intermediate steps of the search or sees un-
to see what happens. successful attempts. When the search succeeds, the
program moves current to the right place.
3. Change a letter in the name field on the form. Then
click CheckIn. You will now be at the breakpoint in Me versus Me.Recordset. Notice that we can access a
the CheckIn procedure. Open the Immediate win- field in the current record in two ways: through the
dow with Ctrl+G and adjust window sizes so that form with Me.field and through the record set with
you see the guest table, the form, and the Immediate Me.Recordset.field. There are some important differ-
window at the same time. ences between these two approaches.
4. Notice that the name of the guest hasn't changed in If the program reads past the last record in the record
the guest table. Now enter this statement in the Im- set, EOF becomes true and there is no current record in
mediate window the record set. If we try to use Me.Recordset.field we
Me.Recordset.Move(0)
will get an error message. However, there is a current
record in the form - the last record - and we can access
Notice that this changes the guest name in the guest
it in the program with Me.field.
table. What happened? Access was editing the name
field through the hidden buffer, but now updated the If the record set is empty, EOF is true and there is no
record in the table to allow current to move. This is the current record in the record set. However, there is a
trick we used at the end of CheckIn to update the data- Null record in the form, the user sees blank fields, and
base and then update frmFindStay. the program can access them with Me.field. The fields
are all Null and we cannot store anything in them.
5. Try this statement in the Immediate window
Me.Recordset.MoveNext

Fig 5.6C Me.Recordset, Me.RecordsetClone
BOF
Me.Recordset
Recordset

Current record
MoveNext
Hidden buffer
(Text)
Me.RecordsetClone
Current record
MoveNext
EOF
Me.Recordset.Move(0) ‘ Updates Me-changes.
Me.Recordset.MoveNext ‘ Updates Me-changes. Moves to next record.
Me.RecordsetClone.FindFirst(“stayID=740”)
Me.Recordset.Bookmark=Me.RecordsetClone.Bookmark

5.6.4 Record set properties, survey
In this section we give a summary of the record-set empty record sets. When true there is no current re-
properties. There are more properties than those shown, cord.
but they are for special, technical use. Section 5.6 is a
tutorial introduction to record sets. FindFirst(criterion As String). Finds the first record
in the set that matches the criterion. Makes this re-
AbsolutePosition (attribute, read and write). The po- cord current. The attribute NoMatch is False or
sition in the record set of the current record. The True depending on whether a matching record was
first record in the set has AbsolutePosition 0, the found or not. The criterion is a text looking like a
next AbsolutePosition 1, and so on. Setting Abso- Where-clause in SQL but without the word Where.
lutePosition to x will make record x current. If you For instance "stayID=740".
- or a concurrent user of the database - insert or de-
lete records, the Absolute positions may change. FindLast(Criterion As String). Similar to FindFirst,
but finds the last matching record in the set.
AddNew( ). Sets a Null record in the edit buffer. The
Update operation will transfer the edit buffer as a FindNext(Criterion As String). Similar to FindFirst,
new record to the record set. but searches forwards from the current record.
BOF (attribute, read only). True if the program has FindPrevious(Criterion As String). Similar to Find-
tried to move current record before the first record. First, but searches backwards from the current
Also True for empty record sets. When True there record.
is no current record.
GetRows(n As Long). Copies n records to an array of
Bookmark (attribute, read and write). A unique iden- variant data. The first record is current. Moves cur-
tification of the current record in the record set. rent forward n records to the first record after the
You can set the bookmark property to the book- ones copied. If there are less than n records left,
mark of some other record in the same record set. GetRows only transfers what is left.
This will make this record current. The method is
advantageous to setting AbsolutePosition because Example: Assume that rs is a record set. The
bookmarks don't change when records are inserted records have 3 fields.
or deleted. Dim A( )
A = rs.GetRows(7)
Clone( ). Creates a clone object that behaves like a re- ' A(f, r) is now field f of record r
cord set but works on the same set of records. It has
its own pointer to a current record. Returns a refer- This program piece transfers the next 7 records and
ence to the Clone object. Example: sets the range of A to A(0 To 2, 0 To 6). The in-
Set cloneRecordset = rs.Clone dexes of A are zero-based and A(0, 3) will thus
contain the first field of the fourth record.
Close( ). Closes the record set and frees the associated
memory. LastUpdated (attribute, read only). The date and time
the current record was last changed. Only available
DateCreated (attribute, read only). The date and time when the record set is based on a table, not on an
the current record was created. Only available when SQL-query. This means that it must be opened like
the record set is based on a table, not on an SQL- this:
query. This means that it must be opened like this: Set rs = currentDB.OpenRecordset ("tblGuest")
Set rs = currentDB.OpenRecordset ("tblGuest") (See also OpenRecordset below.)
(See also OpenRecordset below.)
Move(n As Long). Moves current n records away.
Delete( ). Deletes the current record. After Delete there When n>0 the movement is forward, if n<0 back-
is no current record, but after a MoveNext the ward. Move(0) is useful in bound record sets
record after the deleted record will be current. (Me.Recordset) to make Access store the current
record in the database.
Edit( ). Transfers the current record to the edit buffer.
Edits can then take place in the edit buffer. The MoveFirst( ), MoveLast( ). Moves current to the first
Update operation will transfer the edit buffer to the or last record in the record set.
current record in the record set. Any operation that
moves current record (e.g. MoveNext or Find) will MoveNext( ) , MovePrevious( ). Moves current one
cancel what is in the edit buffer. record forward or one record backward. If the
movement goes beyond the ends of the record set,
EOF (attribute, read only). True if the program has EOF or BOF become True.
tried to move beyond the last record. Also True for

Name (attribute, read only). The SQL query behind the RecordCount (attribute, read only). Shows the number
record set. In order to define the SQL-statement, of records in the set that are presently loaded by the
use OpenRecordSet. SQL-engine. After a MoveLast, it will show the
total number of records in the set. When the record
NoMatch (attribute, read only). Is False or True de- set has just been opened, it will be zero for an
pending on whether the previous Find operation empty set, usually one in other cases. Use EOF as a
found a record or not. safe way to determine whether the set is empty.
OpenRecordSet(s As String). This is not an operation Requery( ). Re-computes the query behind the record
in the record set but in a database object. Opens a set. Useful if the records behind the query have
record set and returns a reference to it. The text s been changed by other means than this record set.
may be an SQL-statement, a table name, or a query
name. Examples: Update( ). Transfers the edit buffer to the record set,
either to the record from which it came (after Edit)
Dim rs As Recordset or as a new record (after AddNew).
Set rs = currentDB.OpenRecordset ("SELECT * FROM
tblGuest WHERE . . . ; ")
...
Set rs = currentDB.OpenRecordset ("tblGuest")

5.7 Modules and menu functions
One way to implement functions is by means of com- Screen is the VBA concept of the computer screen. The
mand buttons and the Click event. Another important property ActiveForm gives us the form that was in fo-
way is through a menu. This section explains how to cus. Finally, we use the bang-operator to find the
implement menu functions. Figure 5.7A shows the stayID of this form.
principle.
However, what happens if there is no open stay win-
For command buttons, we utilize that each Form has a dow when the user clicks CancelStay? VBA would not
module with code. In this Form module you write the be able to find stayID and would show strange mes-
event procedures that responded to clicks and other sages to the user. It would also halt the program. For-
events. For menus, the situation is slightly different - a tunately, VBA has a mechanism that allows us to catch
menu doesn't belong to any particular Form. Where such errors:
should we write the procedures that handle clicks in the On Error GoTo NoStay
menu? The answer is to make a simple module - one
that doesn't belong to a form. In this module we write After this statement, any error will cause the program
the procedures. Next we set the OnAction properties to continue at the line NoStay. In VBA terms this
for the menu items so that they will call the procedures. statement has enabled the error handler of the proce-
We explain the details below. dure. (See more on error handling in section 6.1.)
In the line NoStay, the program uses MsgBox to tell the

5.7.1 Create a menu function user to open a stay window.
We will show how to implement the menu item Can-
celStay. If you followed the book closely, your hotel The central part of the procedure is like CheckIn
system should already have this menu point under the (Figure 5.6A), but sets the states to 4, meaning
menu heading Stays, but it doesn't work yet (see sec- Canceled. We might delete the stay and the connected
tion 3.5.2). Proceed as follows: room states entirely, but for auditing purposes and
undo-purposes, we just change the states. By the way,
1. Create module. In the database window, select the
it also allows you to experiment with the procedure
Module tab. There is no Wizard here to help you
easily, since you can cancel a stay, then book it again,
create a module, so click New in the database
etc.
window heading. You should now be in the VBA
editor. Note that we set the state of the stay itself through this
statement:
2. Enter the procedure mniCancelStay as shown on Screen.ActiveForm!state = 4
Figure 5.7A. The central part of the procedure is This will always work since the program has checked
similar to cmdCheckin (Figure 5.6A), so you may that a stay form is active.
simply copy the check-in event procedure and
modify it. (We use the prefix mni for menu-item Finally, we have to let the program return from the
procedures.) procedure without continuing into the error handling,
where it would ask the user wrong things. The state-
The CancelStay procedure uses several new VBA con- ment
cepts. Look at the first line: Exit Funtion
Public Function mniCancelStay() As Integer takes care of this.
First of all it is not a Private Sub like the event proce- 3. Save the module. Use File -> Save (or Ctrl+S).
dure, but a Public Function. It is public because it must This saves the module, but keeps it open. Give the
be accessible from other modules and from the menu module the name basCommon for common base
mechanisms. It is function because it has to return a module.
result. We have arbitrarily specified As Integer mean-
ing that it returns an integer value. The only reason to If you just close the VBA window, the window
make it a function is that the menu mechanisms insist disappears and the module is not visible in the database
on it being that way. The result is not used for anything window. Very scaring! It is not gone, however, just
as far as I can tell. hidden. The VBA window shows it. When you close
the database, Access will ask for a name for the
The first part of the procedure body tries to find the module. Section 5.7.3 explains more about creating and
stay that was selected when the user clicked Cancel- naming modules.
Stay. This statement does it:
Stay = Screen.ActiveForm!stayID

Fig 5.7A Modules and menu functions
Form module
Form
Simple module
basCommon
Catch error when no

stay window is selected
Get stayID in the

selected Stay window
Change state for the

selected Stay window
Ask user to
select a stay window

5.7.2 Define the menu item toolbar is only shown when this form is in focus. In
We have now written the menu function. It is time to this way the menu functions on the toolbar are always
connect it to the menu. available when the user can click on the menu item.
4. Close VBA, right-click the toolbar area and select 5.7.3 Managing modules and class modules
Customize. You can create a module through the database
window's Module tab, but the usual way is to do it
5. Roll down the Stays menu, right-click CancelStay, through the VBA editor. However, things work in a
and select Properties (Figure 5.7B). Set the strange way here. Figure 5.7C shows how to manage.
OnAction property to:
=mniCancelStay( ) • To create a module, right click an item in the
Project Explorer window. Select Insert and either
6. Close the customize boxes and try out the menu: Module or Class Module.
Open a stay through FindGuest, select the stay,
and use the menu point CancelStay. Unless you are You can now edit the module in the code window.
very, very lucky and careful, there will be errors in
your mni-procedure. Don't worry - it is normal. • To name or rename a module, select it and use the
Find the errors and repair them. property icon on the tool bar. (You cannot right
click to change it.) Edit the name in the property
You may later set the stay back to booked or checked- window.
in with the buttons in the stay window. Also check that
the program behaves correctly when you use Cancel- • To delete a module, select it, right click and use
Stay without having a stay window in focus. Remove . . .
Menu procedures in the form module Class module

Above, we put the menu procedure in a simple module. A class module corresponds to a class in other object-
The advantage is that we can call the procedure inde- oriented languages. It has procedures and declares
pendently of which forms are open or in focus. The variables. You can create multiple objects based on the
disadvantage is that we have to check that the right class, each with their own variables. The only
form is in focus. difference between form modules and class modules is
that the latter are not visible to the user and have no
In some cases it is more convenient to have the menu controls.
procedure in the form module. If you like, you can
make an experiment with how to do it. In order to create an object of class claGuest, declare a
reference to it and create it with New. Address public
• Add another menu item to the Stays menu. Call it variables and procedures in the object with the dot
CancelLocal as on Figure 5.7B. Set its OnAction notation:
property to
=mniCancelLocal( ) Dim guest As claGuest
' References to a Guest object
...
• Open the VBA module for frmStay and insert a Set guest = New claGuest
function that looks like mniCancelStay. However, guest.address = . . .
it should have the name mniCancelLocal. Further, guest.SendLetter(" . . . ")
it should not use Screen.ActiveForm but Me in-
This is similar to creating multiple open forms (section
stead. The reason is that this function will be
5.5.12). Beware: the claGuest objects are just for
called in the context of the form module, meaning
illustration. They exist only in memory. They are not
that the controls are always available. As a result,
stored in the database and they have nothing to do with
you don't need all the error handling stuff.
the guest records in the database.
• Try out the new menu item. It should work cor-
Module (simple)
rectly when used from a stay window, but gives
A simple module is similar to a class but there is only
Access-language error messages when used from
one object based on the module. The system creates
other forms. Actually, Access cannot even find the
this object automatically. In order to address a public
function if the form is not in focus.
procedure or variable in the module basCommon, use
This way of calling a menu function is particularly the dot notation:
suited when the menu is in a toolbar that is specific for basCommon.simDate = . . .
the form. You may remember (section 3.5.3) that tool- d = basCommon.getDate()
bars may be attached to a form in such a way that the

Fig 5.7B Action for menu items
Call mniCancelStay
Properties for
Cancel stay menu item
Fig 5.7C Managing modules and class modules
Select properties
to change module name Property
window
Right click to
insert Module or
Class Module
Project
explorer
Delete module

5.7.4 Global variables This is the place where the program will set the simu-
The only persistent data in our application is the data in lated day to be used. The first thing we will do in the
the database. Until now the only dialog data has been hotel system is to open frmFindStay, and at that mo-
some data in the forms, for instance the value of the ment the Load procedure will be executed. It will set
unbound controls. This data disappears when the form the simulated date to the 23rd October 2002, the date
closes, so we need some way to handle dialog data that used in several pictures in the User Interface Design
lives across the entire dialog with the user. Modules is book. Note how a date is written inside VBA. The for-
the solution to the problem because a module is open mat is a US date, independent of any regional settings
and holds data as long as the application is running. in Microsoft Windows. Note also how we address
simDate through basCommon. We might omit bas-
As a simple example, we will see how to handle a Common, but if we have many modules, we resolve
simulated today's date. In the real system, we need to any name ambiguity in the way written. It also allows
show today's date in many places, for instance as the the VBA editor to guide us in selecting the right ele-
default search criterion for arrival date. It is easy to do ment in basCommon.
by means of the built-in function Date( ) which always
gives us today's date (or rather the current date setting 3. Look at the property box for the arrival date. De-
in the computer). fine the default value as this expression:
=getData( )
However, when testing the system, our test data is
planned for some specific dates. We cannot change the 4. Open frmFindStay and check that the default value
test data every day we need it. We might instead for the arrival date is correct. The user can of
change the current date setting of the system to the course change the arrival date to what he likes.
simulated date, but this is not recommended because it
The arrival date is a combo box and the real system
has side effects on other things, for instance the date of
provides a list of dates around today for the user to
files created or changed, which again may create havoc
choose. The default day is still important, however.
in automatic backup procedures.
You may wonder why we write basCommon.simDate
So let us create a simulated date and keep it in the bas-
in the Load-procedure and =getDate() in the property.
Common module. Figure 5.7D shows the solution.
The answer is that in properties we can only use public
1. Open the basCommon module and enter this line at functions, not public variables. Furthermore we cannot
the top use the basCommon prefix. The same rule applied
Public simDate As Date when we specified the OnAction property of the menu
Also create the public function getDate( ) as item.
shown.
Once our system is tested and ready for use, how do we
The variable simDate is a variable in the simple mod- let it use the real date? One simple way is to keep eve-
ule and lives as long as the application is open. The rything and just change the getDate function to
Public Function getDate( ) As Date
function getDate simply retrieves the simulated date
getDate = Date( )
and returns it as its own value. End Function
2. Open the module for frmFindStay and create the The system will work exactly as before except that it
load procedure as shown. gets the real today instead of the simulated one.

Fig 5.7D Global variables
Simple module
Global variable basCommon
Access function
Form module
frmFindStay
Reference to
global variable
Property box
cboArrival

6. Visual Basic reference
In this chapter we give an overview of VBA, the Visual Using VBA functions outside VBA. Although we de-
Basic language for Applications. We assume that you scribe VBA below, most of the built-in functions and
know something about programming already. We also operators are available also in SQL-statements and in
assume that you have looked at some of the Visual some control properties (e.g. ControlSource). In these
Basic examples in the booklet so that you have seen places you may for instance use the functions
program pieces written in this language. IIF(a, b, c) and
DMin("roomId", "tblRooms", "roomType=2")
Our discussion is mainly based on the examples shown However, the regional settings may influence the syn-
on the figures. Most of these figures are also available tax. As an example, with Central European settings,
as the VBA Reference Card. It may be downloaded you have to separate parameters with semicolon when
from www.itu.dk/people/slauesen. working outside VBA. (See more in section 6.6.)
If you want additional explanation, you have to use the Also notice that when you use the functions from
on-line help or experiment on your own. Be prepared VBA, you get excellent help and excellent error mes-
that the official documentation (on-line help) is often sages, but when using them in SQL or ControlSource,
incomplete or outright wrong, in the sense that the you get little help and very confusing error reactions.
system does something different than described. The
examples we show in the figures are based on testing
what the system actually does.
6.1 Statements
Line continuation. A simple VBA statement consists Conditional statements
of a line of text. If the statement is too long for a line, Conditional statements are executed when some condi-
you can split it into two or more lines. To do this, you tion is met. They are examples of compound state-
write a space followed by an underscore at the end of ments, which may consist of more than one simple
the line (Figure 6.1A). You cannot break the line in the statement. As Figure 6.1A shows, there are several
middle of a text string. You have to compose a long kinds of conditional statements.
text from shorter texts joined with the &-operator.
Simple If-Then. The simplest version consists of an If-
Comment. You can write a comment at the end of the Then clause followed by a single statement, which is
line. It starts with an apostrophe ( ' ). The compiler then executed when the condition is True. It must all be on
ignores the rest of the line. You can only have com- one line, possibly broken with line continuations.
ments on the last of the continued lines.
If-Then-Else. The more general version consists of an
Assignment statement. An assignment statement If-Then clause followed by one or more statements,
computes a value and stores it in the variable to the left which may be compound themselves. These statements
of the =. The Set statement is a special version of as- are executed when the condition is True. If the condi-
signment. It doesn't store a computed value, but a ref- tion is False, the program continues with any ElseIf-
erence to some object. The figure shows how it stores a Then clauses, each testing their own condition, and
reference to the first open Form, how it creates a new passing the control on if the condition is False. If all
open form object and stores a reference to it, and how these conditions are False, the program continues with
it can set the reference to point at nothing. the statements after any Else clause. The net result is
that the statements after at most one of the clauses are
Whenever you set a reference, VBA checks whether executed.
this overwrites an earlier reference. If so, VBA also
checks whether this is the last reference to the object, Select-Case is often a more elegant way to choose
and if so it deletes the object since nobody can refer to between statements. In the example, we test the vari-
it any more (this is called garbage collection). able zip. If zip is 4000 the program executes the state-
ments after Case 4000. If zip is 4001 or between 5000
and 5999, it executes the statements after this clause.
And if none of this is True, the program executes any
Case-Else statements. Again, the net result is that the
statements after at most one of the clauses are exe-
cuted.
116 6. Visual Basic reference

Error handling Fig 6.1A Visual Basic Statements
On-Error statements switch error trapping on and off
inside the current procedure. In order to allow the pro-
Line continuation, comments, assignment
gram to handle errors at all, you have to set an option
i = i+2 ‘ Comment
in VBA: s = “long text A” & _
Access 2000 and 2003: “long text B” ‘ Comment in last line only
Tools -> Options -> General ->
Break on Unhandled Errors Set f = Forms(0) Store a reference
Set f = New Form_frmG Create object, store ref
Access 97: Set f = Nothing Delete object if last ref
Tools -> Options -> Advanced ->
Break on Unhandled Errors Conditional statements
If a=1 Then c=d+2 ‘ Single statement
After On Error Resume Next, any program error or If a=1 Then
other unexpected situation just skips the statement c=d+2 . . . ‘ Multiple statements
where the error occurred. For instance, if the error ElseIf a=2 Then
occurred during an assignment to x, nothing will be c=d/2 . . . Optional
assigned to x, so x is left unchanged. Else
c=0 . . . Optional
After On Error GoTo L, any unexpected situation End If
causes the program to continue at label L. Should fur- Select Case zip
ther errors occur here, they cause the procedure to re- Case 4000
turn with an error condition to be treated by the calling type = a . . .
procedure. Case 4001, 5000 To 5999
type = b . . .
After On Error GoTo 0 (zero), VBA will handle all Case Else
unexpected situations, halting the program if necessary. type = c . . . Optional
When the procedure returns, the calling procedure will End Select
handle all errors according to its own On-Error set- On Error Resume Next ‘ Ignore error
tings. . . . If Err > 0 Then . . . ' Test for error
When Access detects a program error, it sets an Err On Error GoTo fail ‘ Enable error handler
...
object with information about the error. Err has several
fail: MsgBox( . . . ) ‘ Continue here at error
properties, for instance
On Error GoTo 0 ‘ Let VBA handle errors
Err.Number (or just Err): The error ID. Err = 0
means no error.
Err.Source: The program that generated the error.
If Try something else actually succeeds, Err is still > 0
Err.Description: A text describing the error (or giving
and the program gives up by mistake. The right pattern
the error message).
is to use
Err.Clear or Err = 0
Notice that Access doesn't clear the Err object until the
procedure returns. This can be confusing in program just before Try something else.
patterns where the program tries various things to
The main problem when using the Err object is to find
succeed:
out what the error ID means. I have not seen a list of
On Error Resume Next the codes. The idea is that each subsystem defines its
. . . Do something that may cause an error own error ID's, but this makes it even harder to know
If Err > 0 Then the ID's.
. . . Try something else
If Err > 0 Then . . . Give up
6. Visual Basic reference 117

Loop statements For-To-Next updates the loop variable (i in the exam-
Loop statements repeat one or more statements until ple) for each trip around the loop. In the example, i was
some condition is met or until an explicit Exit from the one for the first round through the loop. Then i was
loop (Figure 6.1B). The repeated statements may be increased by 2 before the next trip, and so on. When i
compound themselves. >last, the loop terminates. If i >last from the beginning,
the loop is not executed at all. Statements inside the
While-Wend repeats the statements as long as the loop may break out of the loop with an Exit For. In this
While-condition is True. If the condition is False from case the value of i is defined. However, if the loop ter-
the beginning, none of the statements in the loop will minates due to i >last, it is not defined what the value
be executed. It is not possible to break the loop with an of i will be. So don't even rely on it being >last.
Exit-statement.
For-Each-Next scans through all objects in a collec-
Do-While-Loop is similar to While-Wend, the only tion. The example shows how to scan through all
difference being that it is possible to break out of the Forms in the collection of open Forms. The reference
loop with an Exit Do. variable f will in turn point to each of the objects in the
collection. It is possible to break out of the loop with
Do-Loop-While is also similar, but the condition is an Exit For.
tested at the end of the loop, meaning that the state-
ments will be executed at least once.

Fig 6.1B Loop statements
Loops
While a<10 ‘ Maybe empty loop
c=c*2
... ‘ Exit not allowed
Wend
Do While a<10 ‘ Maybe empty loop
c=c*2
. . . Exit Do ‘ Exit optional
...
Loop
Do ‘ Loop at least once
c=c*2
. . . Exit Do ‘ Exit optional
...
Loop While a<10
For i=1 To last Step 2 ‘ Step optional
c=c*2 ‘ Maybe empty loop
. . . Exit For ‘ Exit optional
...
Next i
‘ Don’t trust value of i when loop ends without Exit
For Each f In Forms ‘ Scan collection
call print(f.name . . . )
. . . Exit For ‘ Exit optional
...
Next

6.2 Declarations
The ancestor of Visual Basic, the programming lan- Variant. You can explicitly declare the variable as
guage Basic, was designed for teaching programming Variant, but if you don't specify a type, the variable is
with a minimum of formalities about the writing. This Variant anyway. Variants can not only hold the simple
meant that there was no need to declare variables at all. values above, but also values such as Null or Empty.
Basic created the necessary variables as they were Notice that VBA treats all fields in database records as
needed. This is still possible in Visual Basic, but soft- Variant.
ware developers agree that when developing larger
programs it is a huge advantage to declare all variables. Initial values. When a record field is empty, it has the
You can tell VBA to insist on declarations. Write this value Null. When a Variant is just created, it has the
specification at the beginning of the module value Empty, because no memory is allocated for the
Option Explicit value. When a String is just created, it holds a text of
length 0. When a numerical variable is just created, it
Variant type. Even if you declare a variable, you don't holds the value 0.
have to specify its type. Without an explicit type, the
variable is of type Variant. This means that its actual Strings come in two versions. Strings of variable
type may change dynamically according to what the length and strings of fixed length. The former change
program stores into it. It may thus hold a number at one their length to match what the program stores in them.
point in time, a text string at another point in time. The length may be very long, nominally 2 billion, in
Apart from the value in the variable, VBA also stores a practice limited by memory space. Strings of fixed
tag telling what the type is at present. length always use space from the left, and fill up the
remaining characters with spaces (blanks).
Simple variables
Declarations of variables usually start with the word The field types text and memo correspond to VBA
Dim (for dimension) followed by a list of the variables. strings of variable length.
Figure 6.2A shows such a list
Dim B, C As Byte Arrays
The result is that variable B is of type Variant and vari- Arrays can have one or more dimensions. In Figure
able C of type Byte. Unfortunately this is counterintui- 6.2A, array c has two dimensions. The first index
tive and cumbersome. Most people would believe that ranges from zero to 5 (zero is the default), the second
B as well as C are of type Byte. You have to specify a from 1 to 6. You may specify the type of the elements
type for each of the variables to avoid them becoming of the array. If omitted, they are Variants.
variants.
The second array, d, is dynamic, meaning that its di-
Simple variables may be of the types shown on the fig- mensions and index ranges can change over time. The
ure: Byte, Boolean, Integer, etc. We have met most of program can dynamically change the dimensions and
them already. Byte, Integer and Long hold integers ranges by means of the Redim statement, but in general
with different range. Single and Double hold floating the values stored in the array don't survive this opera-
point numbers with at least 6 significant digits (Single) tion. You can use Redim Preserve if you only change
or 14 significant digits (Double). (See section 2.2 for the range of the last dimension. In that case, the values
details.) survive.
Currency. The Currency type is a funny in-between You can release the memory occupied by a dynamic
intended for keeping track of monetary amounts. It is a array by means of the Erase statement.
very long integer (64 bits) interpreted as this integer
divided by 10,000. This means that the integer 147,000 Type declarations
is the number 14.7 exactly. Why this rule? It is because You can declare types of your own (user-defined
we can guarantee that amounts are rounded correctly as types). They will typically take the form of a record
a bookkeeper would do it. With floating point numbers declaration as shown on the figure. Notice that each
you have no control over the round-off. field of the record must be specified on a line of its
own.
Date. A date value is technically a Double. The integer
part is the number of days since 12/30-1899 0:00, the You can only declare types in simple modules, not in
fractional part is the time within the day. As an exam- Form modules. Once you have declared a type, you can
ple, the number 1 corresponds to 12/31-1899 at 0:00, use it for declaring variables and arrays.
the number 1.75 to 12/31-1899 at 18:00 (6 PM).
Procedures
Object and Form variables are references to objects, There are two kinds of procedures: subroutines and
not the objects themselves. You can set the references functions. The only difference is that a function returns
by means of the Set-assignment and test them by a value. For this reason you can store the result of a
means of the Is-operator.

Fig 6.2A Visual Basic declarations
Declarations Procedures = Subroutines and Functions

Dim B, C As Byte B is Variant, C is 0..255 proc a, b, , d ‘ Parenthesis-free notation
Boolean True (<>0, False (=0) Call show(a, b, , d) ‘ Subroutines only
Integer 16 bit, -32,786 .. 32,767 res = fnc(a, b, , Me) ‘ Functions only
Long 32 bit integer, -2.14E9 .. 2.14E9 Sub show(a, b As t, Optional c, d)
Currency 64 bit integer / 10,000 If IsMissing(c) Then . . .
Single 32 bit, -3.4E38 .. 3.4E38, 6 digits Exit Sub ‘ Optional
Double 64 bit, -1.8E308 .. 1.8E308, 14 digits ...
Date Double, days since 30. Dec 1899 0:00 End Sub
Object Reference to any object
Form Reference to any Form Function fnc(a, b As t, Optional c, d As Object) _
Variant Any of the types or Null, Empty, As String ‘ As String is optional
Error, Nothing - plus a type tag. If IsMissing(c) Then . . .
All database fields are Variant fnc= result . . .
String Variable length, max 2E9 characters Exit Function ‘ Exit optional
String * 50 Fixed length, space filled ...
End Function
Initial values String = “”, Boolean =False
Number, Date = 0 Database field = Null
Object = Nothing Variant = Empty Enumeration Type
Dim c(5, 1 To 6) As t Same as c(0..5, 1..6) Public Enum RoomState ' Visible to all modules
Dim d( ) As Single Dynamic array declaration rmBooked = 1
ReDim d(5, 1 To 6) Statement rmOccupied = 2
Index range (re)defined, data lost rmRepair = 3
ReDim Preserve d(5, 1 To 8) End Enum
Last index range redefined, data preserved Public states(12) As RoomState
Erase d Releases memory for dynamic array . . . states(i) = rmRepair
Type Customer ‘ Simple modules only
custID As Long
custName As String * 50
custAddress As String
End Type
Dim custTable(20) As Customer
function call as shown in Figure 6.2A, while you have Enumeration type - constant declaration
to call a subroutine with the word Call. You may call You can define enumeration types as shown on Figure
either of them with the parenthesis-free notation as 6.2A. A variable of type RoomState can have the value
shown on the figure. It means exactly the same, but rmBooked, rmOccupied or rmRepair.
you cannot store the result in case you call a function
this way. VBA doesn't restrict the value of the variables to
rmBooked, etc. The Enum declaration is primarily a
The figure also shows how subroutines and functions structured way of defining the constants rmBooked, etc.
are declared. Note how you specify that a specific type See section 6.3 for other ways of defining constants.
of parameter is required, and how you specify that a
parameter may be omitted (optional). The procedure
can check whether an optional parameter is present
with the operator IsMissing.
Note how you can use Me as a parameter when you call

a procedure. Inside the procedure, the parameter must
be specified as Object, not as Form as you might
expect.
When control passes to the end of the procedure, it

returns to the point it was called. The program can also
exit from the procedure with Exit Sub or Exit Function.

Module and scope can address Public variables and procedures in an
You create simple modules with the VBA editor (see object through an object reference.
section 5.7.3). Declare module variables at the top of
the module, procedures below (Figure 6.2B). The Procedures can declare variables of their own. If de-
module variables live as long as the application runs. If clared with Dim, the variable is created at the time the
they are declared with Public instead of Dim, they are procedure is called and deleted when it returns. How-
accessible from other modules and from Forms. ever, if it is declared with Static, it survives from one
call to the next. Variables declared inside a procedure
You create class modules the same way. Objects of the are never accessible from outside the procedure.
class are created dynamically (see section 5.7.3). You
6.3 Constants and addresses

Constants rs . f = "" ' Empty string not allowed
Figure 6.3 shows the various ways to write constant rs . f = " " ' Okay, spaces as a text
values in VBA.
Nothing. The value Nothing can be used for testing
Numeric constants can be written in the usual decimal with the Is-operator and for assigning to a reference
way, in octal (preceded by &o) or in hexadecimal (pre- variable with the Set statement, for instance
ceded by &h). Note the scientific notation If x = Nothing Then . . .
-4.9E-20 meaning -4.9 * 10-20 Set x = Nothing
Color values consist of 8 bits for the amount of blue, Constant declaration. You can declare constants, i.e.
followed by 8 bits for green and 8 bits for red. This is give them a name. In the example, we have given the
conveniently written in hex, e.g. &h09A0FF. Note that constant 10 the name max and the constant 24th March
colors on the web (HTML) are similar, but use the 2002 the name start. VBA has many predefined con-
opposite sequence, RGB. stants, for instance vbKeyA to denote the Ascii value
of the letter A and vbYes to denote the result of
String constants are enclosed in quotes. There is no MsgBox when the user has chosen Yes.
way to write special characters inside the string con-
stant. You have to generate a string with a single spe- Define constants for your project in a simple module,
cial character using Chr(x), where x is the Ascii value e.g. basCommon.
of the character. As an example, Chr(10) is a line feed.
Next you concatenate these string parts by means of the Addressing variables and objects
&-operator. A quote inside a string constant is written Figure 6.3 also shows the various ways to address a
as two quotes. When you have to compute SQL-state- variable or an object. The first examples address the
ments in VBA, these statements will often include members of the Forms collection in different ways. The
string constants in quotes. Fortunately, SQL accepts first version uses an integer index as a reference, the
double quotes as well as single quotes. Generate the second a computed string as the name of the Form, the
single quotes-version with VBA to avoid conflicts with third a short-hand notation with a fixed string as the
VBA double quotes. name of the form.
Date/time constants are enclosed in # #. The date The next examples address Form properties and fields
format between # and # is always US format mm/dd/yy from code in the Form itself. The property Name is
or mm/dd/yyyy. Time may be part of the date/time addressed with the dot-operator, while the name field is
constant as shown. addressed with the bang-operator. In this case there is a
name conflict between the two meanings of name. If
Null and Empty can be used for testing, for instance there was no conflict, the dot could also be used to
If x = Empty Then . . . address the field. A property in a subform is addressed
If IsNull(x) Then . . . with the name of the subform control followed by
If x = Null Then ' Always gives Null, never True Form to get a reference to the open subform object.
From a subform, the main form can be addressed with
Notice that comparing with Null always gives Null. Me.Parent.
You have to use IsNull to test whether something is
Null. See section 6.4 for more on Null. Note that Me and Parent are of type Object, not type
Form as one might expect.
You can assign Null to a variant variable. You cannot
assign an empty string to a record field in a database, In most cases, you can omit Me. The exception is when
you have to assign Null: a built-in function has the same name as the property or
rs . f = Null ' Okay, works as an empty string control.

Fig 6.2B Module and Scope
Module and Scope

Dim a ‘ Visible in this module only
Public b ‘ Visible to all modules
Private Sub show(p) ‘ Visible in this module only
Dim c ‘ Visible in this sub only
Static d ‘ Visible in this sub only,
‘ but survives calls
If . . . Then . . .
End Sub
Public Sub show(p) ‘ Visible to all modules
Dim c ‘ Visible in this sub only
...
End Sub
Fig 6.3 Visual Basic constants and addresses
Constants Addressing
23, -23, 0, -4.9E-20 Decimal numbers Forms(i) Element in collection
&h09A0FF, &o177 Hex and Octal, color: bgr Forms(“frmCst” & i)
“Letter to:” Strings Forms!frmCst2 Bang-operator
Chr(65), Chr(vbKeyA) The text “A” Me.Name, Me!name Property and Control in
“John” & Chr(10) & “Doe” Two-line text this Object (e.g. form)
“Don’t say “”No”” “ Don’t say “no” Me.subLst.Form.name Property in subform
“select * from g where a=‘simpson’ ;” Me.Parent.txtName Control in main form
Single quotes are suited for SQL
basCommon.simDate Var in foreign module
True, False Booleans c(row, col) Indexing an array
Date/time custTable(i).custID Field in array of records
#10/24/02# 24th Oct 2002
#10/24/02 14:15:00# 24th Oct 02 at 14:15 With Me.Recordset Apply before dot and bang
#10/24/02 2:15 pm# 24th Oct 02 at 14:15 .addr = .addr & zip
!name = Null
Null, Empty Special values !phone = “ “
Nothing Object reference to nothing .MoveNext
Constant declaration ...
Const max=10, start=#3/24/2# End With
A public variable in a foreign, simple module can be With-End. There is a short-hand notation for address-
addressed as moduleName.variableName as shown. ing an object. The With-End statement specifies a par-
Array elements are addressed with indexes in paren- tial address, for instance an object. Inside the With-
thesis. Arrays of records are addressed with index and End, all dot and bang-operators are automatically pre-
the dot-operator to get a field in element i. fixed with this partial address.

6.4 Operators and conversion functions
Operators The Partition operator translates a value into an
Figure 6.4A shows the operators available in VBA. interval of values, shown as a string. It takes four
The operators are shown in decreasing precedence, parameters:
meaning that high-precedence operators are computed
before low-precedence operators. This is the rule that Value: An integer.
ensures that for instance Lower: The lowest value considered.
a*b+c*d Upper: The highest value considered.
is computed as (a*b) + (c*d) rather than a* (b+c) *d. Int.length: The range of values is divided into
intervals of this length.
The top operators are the conventional mathematical
operators. In general Visual Basic does a good job of As an example Partition(22, 0, 100, 10) = "20:29". The
converting the operands to the best possible data type entire range 0:100 is divided into intervals of length 10.
before applying the operator. The first interval is 0:9, the next 10:19, etc. The value
22 belongs to the interval 20:29.
Null
Null values need attention. Think of Null as Unknown. Between and In. Most VBA operators may be used in
As a general rule, if one of the operands is Null, the SQL too. However, Between and In may only be used
result is Null too. Look at in SQL:
If x = Null Then . . . WHERE a BETWEEN 3 AND 9
WHERE a IN (2, 3, 5, 7)
X = Null will always give Null. This is not True and
the statement after Then will never be executed. See Finally, we have the logical operators. Usually they
section 4.5 for examples of handling Null in queries. work on Boolean values, for instance
If a Or b Then
There are a few exceptions to the general rule: But if a and b are integers, they work in parallel on all
Null and False is False. the bits of these integers.
No matter what the unknown is, the result will be false.
Null or True is True. Like operator, wildcarding
No matter what the unknown is, the result will be true. The Like operator can compare string patterns. It treats
some characters in its right-hand operand in a special
The &-operator concatenates two string operands into way. As an example, the character * means any
one. If one or both operands are non-string, it converts sequence of characters. The expression
s Like "sim*an"
them to strings before concatenation. This also applies
to concatenating with Null, which in this case is con- will thus check whether s starts with the characters
verted to an empty string. Note that & converts dates to "sim" and ends with the characters "an" with any char-
the regional date format. To avoid this, use the Format acters in between.
function to explicitly convert to a specific string
The character ? means any single character here. The
format.
expression
Other operators s Like "b?n"
There are the usual comparison operators, equal, un- will thus check whether s starts with b, ends with n,
equal, etc. They can compare numbers as well as texts. and has exactly one character in between.
The Is-operator compares two object references to see The character # means any digit here. The sequence
whether they refer to the same object. It may also help [ad3] means either a, d, or 3 here. The sequence [a-d3]
checking whether an object reference is Nothing, i.e. means either a letter between a and d here, or the digit
refers to no object. 3. We can even negate the rules: [!ad3] means neither
a, d, or 3 here. The Like operator is also called the
wildcard operator.

Fig 6.4A Operators and conversion functions
Operators, decreasing precedence Conversion to Integer, Double, Date . . .

Nulls: A Null operand usually gives a Null result. Errors: “Invalid use of Null” for Null parameters
^ Exponentiation Overflow or type mismatch for bad parameters.
- Unary minus, 2*-3 = -6 CByte(“37”) =37. Overflow outside 0..255
* Multiply, Result type is Integer, Double, etc. CInt(“2.6”) =3
/ Divide, Single or Double result Round(2.6) = 3.0000 (as Double)
\ Integer divide, result truncated, 5\3 = 1 Rounding down: See Math functions Int, Fix
Mod Modulus (remainder), 5 Mod 3 = 2 CLng(“99456”) = 99456
+- Add and subtract CCur(1/3) =0.3333 (always 4 decimals)
& Concatenation, String result (local format) CSng(“-2.6e-2”) = -0.026
CDbl(“-2.6”) = -2.6
= <> < > <= >= Equal, unequal, less than, etc. CDbl(#12/31/1899#) = 1.0
Is Compare two object references, e.g.
If r Is Nothing (Test for nil-reference) CDate(“23-10-03”) = #10/23/2003# (as Double)
Partition(22, 0, 100, 10) = "20:29" Uses regional setting for input date
a Between 3 and 9 Not in VBA, okay in SQL CDate(1) = #12/31/1899# (as Double)
a IN (2, 3, 5, 7) Not in VBA, okay in SQL CStr(23) = “23”. No preceding space.
Not Negation. Bit-wise negation for integers Str(23) = “ 23”.
And Logical And. Bit-wise And of integers Preceding space for numbers >= 0
Or Logical Or. Bit-wise Or of integers CStr(#10/23/2003#) = “23-10-03”
X Exclusive Or. Bitwise on integers Converts to regional date format
Eqv Logical equivalence. Bitwise on integers CVar(X) = X As Variant. X may be Null
Imp Logical implication. Bitwise on integers
s Like “s?n” Wildcard compare. ? any char here.
# any digit here. * any char sequence here.
[a-k] any letter between a and k here.
Conversion to Integer, Double, Date, etc. some dates are ambiguous. For instance the string
There is a conversion function for most of the types. It "02/03/04" can be interpreted in many ways as a date.
converts an expression of another type to its own type. In these cases, CDate uses the regional setting for the
For instance, CInt(D) converts D to an integer - if pos- date format.
sible - and returns the result as the value of the func-
tion. D might for instance be a string. If D is a decimal CStr( ) can convert a number to a string. It never puts a
number, it is rounded to the nearest integer (up or space (blank) in front of the digits. In contrast, Str( )
down). puts a space in front of numbers >= 0, a minus in front
of negative numbers. Notice that both functions
The function Round(D) does exactly the same as convert dates to the regional date format. To avoid this,
CInt(D) but returns the integer as a Double. See Math use the Format function to convert to a specific date
Functions, section 6.5, for rounding down with Int and format.
Fix.
CVar(X) converts X to a variant type. It doesn't really
CDate(D) converts D to a date/time value (technically a change anything, but sets a type tag on the result it re-
Double number). Often D is a string, and CDate is turns.
quite liberal in its interpretation of the string. However,

Format function As an example, Sunday 3rd February, 2002 gives these
The Format function has two parameters: a value to be results depending on whether Monday or Sunday is the
converted to a text, and the format of the result. The first day of a week:
format is a string and its details are a complex affair.
Format(#2/3/2002#, "ww", 2) = 5 (week 5)
Basically each character in the format is either a Format(#2/3/2002#, "ww", 1) = 6 (week 6)
placeholder that causes VBA to show part of the value,
or it is a literal character that is shown as it is. As an Formats for controls, etc.
example, # will show a digit from the value, while / is Many control properties require formats of the same
not a placeholder and will show up as a / in the result. kind, for instance the date format for a textbox or a
If a placeholder character is to be shown as the charac- DateTime Picker. Usually the format follows the same
ter itself, precede it with a backslash. As an example, \# rules as VBA's Format function, but there may be
will show a # in the result. deviations. Some very annoying ones are:
There are separate placeholders for numbers, strings, MM for month and mm for minute.
and dates. Apparently, the first placeholder determines HH for 24 hours, hh for hours with AM/PM.
whether to show the value as a number, a string or
date/time. From this point on, the format characters are Named formats
interpreted according to the type to be shown. The format string may also be the name of a regional
(local) format. As an example, the named format
For numbers, the format string can contain from one to "Currency" will show a number with a $ in the US and
four sections separated by semicolons. The first section with a £ in UK. The user can define the regional
is used for positive numbers, the second for negative, formats in Window's Control Panel -> Regional and
the third for zeroes, and the fourth for Null values (no Language Options. The following named formats exist:
value).
Named numeric Named date/time formats
The details of the format strings and their effect are formats
best studied through the examples on Figure 6.4B. General Number General Date
Currency Long Date
Week number Fixed Medium Date
The week number for a date is shown with the ww
Standard Short Date
placeholder. Since different regions of the globe have
Percent Long Time
different rules for what is the first day in the week, the
Format function needs a third parameter in this case. It Scientific Medium Time
is vbSunday (1) if Sunday is the first day of the week. Yes/No Short Time
It is vbMonday (2) if Monday is the first day of the True/False
week, etc. On/Off

Fig 6.4B Format function
Date/time placeholders
Example: DT = #2/3/2002 14:07:09# (Sunday)
Format(DT, “yyyy-mm-dd hh:nn:ss”, vbMonday)
Format function = “2002-02-03 14:07:09”
Converts a value to a string, based on a format Format(DT, “yy-mmm-d at h:nn am/pm”)
string. Format characters that are not = “02-feb-3 at 2:07 pm”
placeholders, are shown as they are. Format(DT, “dddd t\he y’t\h \da\y of yyyy”)
Backslash+character is shown as the character = “Sunday the 34’th day of 2002”
alone, e.g. \d is shown as d.
d Day of month, no leading zero “3”
Numeric placeholders: dd Day of month, two digits “03”
0 Digit, leading and trailing zero okay here ddd Day of week, short text “Sun”
# Digit, no leading or trailing zero here dddd Day of week, full text “Sunday”
. Decimal point (or regional variant) ww Week number. First day of week as
E- or e- Exponent, use all placeholders third parameter, e.g. vbMonday
E+ or e+ Show exponent with plus or minus m Month, no leading zero “2”
% Show number as percent (Interpreted as minutes after h)
Format(2.3, “00.00”) = “02.30” mm Month, two digits “02”
Format(2.36, “#0.0”) = “2.4” (Interpreted as minutes after h)
Format(0.3, “##.0#”) = “.3” mmm Month, short text “Feb”
Format(32448, “(00)00 00”) = “(03)24 48” mmmm Month, full text “February”
Format(32448, “##.#E+”) = “32.4E+3” y Day of year “34”
Format(32448, “##.#E-”) = “32.4E3” yy Year, two digits “02”
Format(0.5, “#0.0%”) = “50.0%” yyyy Year, four digits “2002”
; Separator between formats for positive, h Hour, no leading zero “14” or “2”
negative, zero, and null values. hh Hour, two digits “14” or “02”
Format(-3, "000;(000);zero;---") = “(003)” AM/PM Show AM or PM here, hours 12-based
String placeholders am/pm Show am or pm here, hours 12-based
@ Character or space n Minutes, no leading zero “7”
& Character or nothing nn Minutes, two digits “07”
! Cut off from left s Seconds, no leading zero “9”
Format(“A123”, “@@@@@@”) = “¬¬A123” ss Seconds, two digits “09”
Format(“A123”, “&&&&&&”) = “A123” Named formats (local format)
Format(“A123”, “(@@)-@”) = “(A1)-23” Format(2.3, "Currency") = "£2.30" (in UK)
Format(“A123”, “!(@@)-@”) = “(12)-3” also "Percent", "Yes/No", "Long Date" . . .

6.5 Other functions
String functions Iif and Choose
String functions work on strings and characters. Figure Two functions select one value out of two or more
6.5A shows the most important ones. choices. Iif(a, b, c) returns b if a is True, c otherwise.
Choose(i, b1, b2, b3 . . . ) returns b1 when i=1, b2
Asc(s) takes the first character of s and returns it as an when i=2, etc. Figure 6.5A shows the details and ex-
integer, the Ascii code for that character. Chr(c) works amples.
the other way and returns an Ascii code as a string of
one character. Array bounds
Since arrays can be dynamic with variable bounds, it is
A set of functions return the length of a string (Len), convenient with functions that can tell the actual
extract the left, right or middle part of a string (Left, bounds. LBound( ) and UBound( ) give lower and
Right, Mid), or trim a string of leading or trailing upper bounds for the first or a later dimension.
spaces (LTrim, RTrim, Trim).
The functions LCase and UCase transform all letters to

Dlookup, DMin, DMax, DSum
These function are also called Direct Lookup, Direct
upper or lower case. Space(n) generates a string of n
Min, etc. They execute an SQL-query on the spot to
spaces.
extract a single value. One example on the figure is
DMin("roomID", "tblRoom", "roomType=2")
Comparing strings is in principle easy, in practice dif-
It corresponds to this SQL-statement:
ficult due to regional variations of the alphabet, how to Select Min(roomID) From tblRoom
treat upper and lower case letters, etc. In each module, Where roomType=2;
you can specify how strings are to be compared. They
may be compared according to their Ascii codes The parameters to DMin( ) must be strings that can be
(Option Compare Binary), according to the regional substituted into the SQL-statement at the underscored
alphabet and without case sensitivity (Option Compare places to give the desired result.
Text), or according to the rules of the database (Option
Compare Database). In the Access database engine, MsgBox
Option Compare Database seems to work exactly as The MsgBox function shows a message to the user,
Option Compare Text. asks for a choice, and returns the choice as the result.
There are many parameters, but only the first one is
The function StrComp(s1, s2) compares s1 to find out required. It specifies the text to show to the user. The
whether s1 comes before s2 in the alphabetical se- second parameter specifies the icon to show plus the
quence (result=-1), are equal (result=0), or comes later set of choices to give. Later parameters specify box
(result=1). Strings may also be compared simply with title, help codes, etc. There are many constants avail-
s1<s2, s1<=s2, etc. able to specify all of these. The example on Figure
6.5A shows a few. (See section 3.6 for more exam-
ples.)

Fig 6.5A String functions and miscellaneous
String functions Iif and Choose

Null parameters: A Null string as input will give Iif(a=a, b, c) =b
the result Null. Null as another parameter is an Iif(a<>a, b, c) =c
error. Iif(Null, b, c) =c
Asc(“AB”) = 65, Ascii code for first character Choose(2, a, b, c) =b
Chr(65) = “A”, a one-letter string with this Choose(4, a, b, c) = Null
ascii character Choose(Null, a, b, c) Error
Len(“A_B”) = 3, length of string. Array bounds
Left(“abc”, 2) = “ab”, leftmost two characters LBound(d) Lower bound for first index
Left(“abc”, 8) = “abc”, as many as available LBound(d, 2) Lower bound for second index
Right(“abc”, 2) = “bc”, rightmost two characters UBound(d) Upper bound for first index
Mid(“abcdef”, 2, 3) = “bcd”, UBound(d, 3) Upper bound for third index
three characters from character 2 DLookup, DMin, DMax, DSum
LTrim(“ ab ”) = “ab ”, leading spaces removed DLookup(“name”, “tblGuest”, “guestID=7”)
RTrim(“ ab “) = “ ab”, trailing spaces removed = name of guest with guestID=7.
Trim(“ ab “) = “ab”, leading and trailing removed
DMin(“roomID”, “tblRooms”, “roomType=2”)
Lcase(“A-b”) = “a-b”, lower case of all letters = smallest room number among double rooms.
Ucase(“A-b”) = “A-B”, upper case of all letters All three parameters are texts inserted into SQL.
Space(5) = String of 5 spaces
DMax, Dsum, DCount, DAvg
Option Compare Text | Binary | Database Similar, just finds largest, sum, number of,
Option in start of module. Text: string comparison average. Null treatment, see SQL
is case insensitive and follows regional settings.
Binary: comparison is based on the internal MsgBox
ASCII code. MsgBox(“Text”, vbYesNo+vbCritical) =vbYes
Database: comparison is defined by the SQL- Also: vbInformation, vbQuestion, vbExclamation
engine.
StrComp(“ab”, “abc”) = -1, first string smallest
StrComp(“ab”, “ab”) = 0, strings equal
StrComp(“ac”, “abc”) = 1, first string largest
If “ab” < “abc” . . . ‘ Works just as well

Type check functions Math functions
Figure 6.5B shows a set of functions that can check the Figure 6.5C shows the mathematical functions avail-
type of an operand or an expression. As an example, able. We find the square root, the trigonometric func-
IsDate(d) checks whether d is of type Date or is a string tions, exponential function and logarithm. There is also
that could be converted to a date by means of a random number generator.
CDate(d).
Abs(x) returns the absolute value of x. Sgn(x) returns
An interesting check function is VarType(v). It returns the signum of x (1, 0, or -1). Int(x) and Fix(x) rounds
a number that shows the type of v. The figure shows the argument with different rules for negative numbers
the many possibilities and the constant name for each (for positive numbers they are equal).
of them. In case of an array, two constants are added,
vbArray (8192) and the constant for the type of the Hex(x) and Oct(x) shows x as a string in hexadecimal
array. As an example, an array of integers will have the or octal notation.
type number vbArray+vbInteger.
Financial functions
Date and time functions Figure 6.5C also shows two of the many financial
Figure 6.5B also shows a set of functions to handle functions available. NPV returns the Net Present Value
date and time. Three functions return the current date, of a sequence of payments (positive and negative). It
the current time, and the current date+time (Date, calculates what these values would total today at a
Time, Now). The function Timer( ) returns the number given interest rate.
of seconds since midnight, with the highest accuracy
available to the computer. It is a good tool for timing IRR calculates the Internal Rate of Return for a se-
program parts to find the bottleneck in a slow program. quence of payments. IRR is the interest rate at which
the Net Present Value of the payments would be zero.
DateSerial computes a date value from the integer ar- There are many other financial functions available, but
guments year, month, and day. TimeSerial computes a we don't explain them here.
time value from hour, minute, and second.
Finally a set of functions can extract day, month, etc. as

integers from a date value. Refer to the figure for de-
tails.

Fig 6.5B Type check and date/time functions
Type check functions Date and time functions

Returns True if v is declared with the type tested A date value is technically a Double. The integer
for, is a Variant currently with this type, or is a part is the number of days since 12/30-1899, the
constant of this type. IsDate and IsNumeric also fractional part is the time within the day.
test whether v is a text that can be converted to Several functions accept date parameters as well
that type. as strings representing a date and/or time.
IsArray(v) Tests for any type of array Null parameters: Always give the result Null.
IsDate(v) Tests whether v is a date or a string
that can be converted to a date Now( ) = current system date and time
IsEmpty(v) Tests whether v is unallocated Date( ) = current date, integral date part
(Strings of length 0 are not Empty) Time( ) = current time, fractional date part
IsError (v) Tests whether v is an error code Timer( ) = Number of seconds since
IsMissing (v) Tests whether v is a parameter that midnight, with fractional seconds.
is missing in the current call. Date = . . . Sets current system date
IsNull (v) Tests whether v is of type Null. Time = . . . Sets current system time
(Strings of length 0 are not Null) DateSerial(2002, 12, 25) = #12/25/2002#
IsNumeric(v) Tests whether v is a numeric type TimeSerial(12, 28, 48) = 0.52 (Time 12:28:48)
(Byte, Integer, Currency, etc.) or a
Day(#12/25/02#) = 25, the day as Integer
string that can be converted to a
Month(#12/25/02#) = 12, the month as Integer
numeric type.
Year(#12/25/02#) = 2002, the year as Integer
IsObject(v) Tests whether v is a reference to
Weekday(#12/25/02#) = 4 (Sunday=1)
an object, for instance a Form. True
Hour(35656.52) = 12 (Time 12:28:48)
also if v is Nothing (the nil-pointer)
Minute(35656.52) = 28
VarType(v) Integer showing the type:
Second(35656.52) = 48
0 vbEmpty 8 vbString
1 vbNull 9 vbObject
2 vbInteger 10 vbError
3 vbLong 11 vbBoolean
4 vbSingle 12 vbVariant (array)
5 vbDouble 17 vbByte
6 vbCurrency 36 vbUserDefinedType
7 vbDate 8192 vbArray (added)
Fig 6.5C Math and financial functions
Math functions. Don't accept x = Null: Financial functions

Sqr(x) Square root of x. Sqr(9) = 3. NPV(0.12, d( ) ) The array d must be of type
Sin(x), Cos(x), Tan(x), Atn(x) Trigonometric Double and contain a list of payments.
functions. X measured in radian (180 Returns the net present value of these
degrees = p = 3.141592 radian) payments at an interest rate of 0.12, i.e. 12%.
Sin(0) = 0, Sin(3.141592 / 2) = 1 IRR(d( )) The array d must be of type Double and
Exp(x) e to the power of x (e = 2.7182...) contain a list of payments. Returns the
Log(x) Natural logarithm of x. Log(e) = 1. internal rate of return, i.e. the interest rate at
Rnd( ) A random number between 0 and 1. which these payments would have a net
Type is Single. present value of 0. If the list of payments
The following functions accept x = Null: have many changes of sign, there are many
Abs(x) Returns x for x>=0, -x otherwise. answers, but IRR returns only one.
Sgn(x) Returns 1 for x>0, 0 for x=0, -1 for x<0 IRR(d( ), 0.1) The second parameter is a guess
Int(x) Rounds x down to nearest integral value at the interest rate, to allow IRR to find a
Fix(x) Rounds x towards zero reasonable result.
Hex(x) Returns a string with the hexadecimal SYD, NPer and many other financial functions are
value of x. Hex(31) = “1F” available for finding depreciated values,
Oct(x) Returns a string with the octal value of number of periods to pay a loan back, etc.
x. Oct(31) = “37”

6.6 Display formats and regional settings
Different regions of the world use different formats for input mask is specified, the user can only use Over-
numbers, dates, and other things. The user can define write mode, not the ordinary edit mode.
the regional formats in Window's Control Panel ->
Regional and Language Options. Output date. How is a date shown? In the designer
environment, it is always shown according to the re-
This not only influences the input and output format for gional date format (Short Date).
user data, but also formats inside the program, the
control properties, and the query grid. For a developer In the programmer environment it is always shown in
working outside the US, it can be a nightmare to figure US format with one exception: The concatenation
out how it all works. Below I illustrate the issues with operator & converts the operands to texts if needed,
the small regional difference I know about, the and dates are converted to regional format. Thus we
difference between US formats and central European get this with a central European setting:
formats. I cannot even imagine the problems if we talk
"Xmas " & #12/25/2007# = "Xmas 25-12-2007"
about regions with different alphabets, writing
directions, and calendar systems such as Chinese and But this with a US setting:
Arabic.
"Xmas " & #12/25/2007# = "Xmas 12/25/2007"
Figure 6.6 gives an overview of the situations. The
main regional differences relate to the format of dates Format property. The user sees the date in the format
for input and output, the list separator, and the decimal defined by the Format property. This format may be
characters. The regional differences show up in differ- different from the input mask, so the user enters one
ent ways in the three main developer and user envi- thing, then the system shows it differently. The de-
ronments: signer has to make sure that these formats match.
• Designer environment: The designer defines List separator. In Central Europe, the list separator is
controls and their properties. He may also define a semicolon since the comma is used to denote the
queries through the query grid. decimal separator. In the US the list separator is a
comma. As a result, the designer has to write for in-
• Programmer environment: The programmer stance Iif(a; b; c) in the query grid or in Control Source
works in Visual Basic and defines SQL-statements properties, while the programmer has to write Iif(a, b,
rather than queries through the grid. c). To make things worse, if the designer uses commas
in the Control Source or the grid, the error reaction is
• User environment: The user sees data through completely confusing.
controls and datasheets.
Fortunately, there is no reason to worry about the user
Input date. Let us first look at the entry of dates. In the environment for the list separator. Users normally don't
designer and programmer environments, Access makes see it at all.
a good guess at the format for dates. If we for instance
enter #2003-13-5# into the query grid or SQL, Access Number format. The number format in Central
guesses what is year, month and day. However, in the Europe has comma as decimal separator and dot as
many situations where this is impossible, such as the thousand separator. In the designer environment you
date #02-03-04#, Access guesses differently in the two have to use these characters, while you use the US
environments. In the designer environment, it uses the format in the programmer environment. In the user en-
regional date format, which in Central Europe is #dd- vironment, the Format property and the Input mask
mm-yy#. In the programmer environment, it uses the determine the format.
US format #mm/dd/yy#.
Practice. Developers are sometimes designers and
Input mask property. What about the user environ- sometimes programmers. It is no wonder that they usu-
ment? Here the designer defines what the user sees by ally set up their development system in pure US mode.
means of the Input mask in the Control Property box. They can ship the system to the users with little change
When the user starts entering a date, the field switches since the users don't see the designer stuff. But if they
to showing the date according to the Input mask. This have to change something at the user's site, they have
mask is similar to the format string in the Format func- to take care since the developer formats now look dif-
tion, but uses quite different placeholders. When an ferent from back home.

Fig 6.6 Regional settings
Display format depends on regional setting
and designer environment:
Designer Programmer User

Query grid, SQL, Table field,
Property line VBA Textbox
Input VBA guess, e.g. #2003-13-5# According to
date In doubt, e.g. #02-03-04#: Input mask
dd-mm-yy mm-dd-yy
Output EU-regional: US: mm/dd/yy According to
date dd-mm-yy Except & which Format
uses regional format
List EU-regional: US:

separator semicolon: comma:
iif( a ; b ; c) iif( a , b , c)
Number 12.300,25 12,300.25 Format ...

7. Access and SQL
In this chapter we look at more complex SQL issues, and how we can show matrices of data where the table
for instance how we can create and delete records headings vary according to the data.
through SQL, how we can use queries inside queries,
7.1 Action queries - CRUD with SQL

Section 5.6 explains how the program can Create, remaining fields of the record become Null. Note how
Read, Update and Delete records in the database by we have put date in brackets. If we omit the brackets,
means of recordsets. In this section we will see how the database engine believes we try to use the built-in
the program can make such CRUD operations by date function and reports it as a syntax error (inde-
means of SQL. pendent of whether we have included dfFailOnError).
We have four kinds of SQL queries available: The INSERT statement can also insert a bunch of
records extracted from another table or query. The
INSERT INTO . . . (Create) bottom of the figure shows an example (explained
This query inserts new records into a table. below).
SELECT . . . FROM . . . (Read) AutoNumber
This query extracts data from the tables. It is the Assume you have a table with a field of type Auto-
query we have used in the rest of the booklet Number. When you insert a record into the table,
(e.g. sections 4.1 to 4.4). In many cases it also Access will automatically fill in the AutoNumber field.
allows the user to edit the data. We will not However, if you explicitly specify a value for the field,
explain it further in this section. Access will accept it if it is unique (different from
other values of this field).
UPDATE . . . (Update)
This query changes records in a table. When Access generates the number automatically, it
will use the highest used number plus one. (The highest
DELETE FROM . . . (Delete) used number may have been used by a record now
This query deletes records from a table. deleted.) As an example, assume we want the booking
numbers in the hotel to consist of a year number and a
The term action query means INSERT, UPDATE or sequence number, for instance 20040001, 20040002
DELETE - the queries that change something in the etc. We can then generate the first booking of the year
database. with this query:
We will explain the mechanisms through the examples INSERT INTO tblStay (stayID) VALUES (20040001)
in Figure 7.1. To execute an action query, we use this
VBA function: New stay records will then be auto-numbered from this
value and on. Deleting some of the records still makes
CurrentDb.Execute ”INSERT . . . ", dbFailOnError
the number grow sequentially.
CurrentDB is the database currently used by the UPDATE
program. We ask it to execute the INSERT query. The UPDATE statement sets room state to 2 and
Usually the query statement is a computed string that personCount to 1 for all roomState records where
includes dialog variables, for instance the customer the roomID=14 and date=27/10/2002. In this case there is
user works with. only one such record because roomID and date make
up the primary key for the table.
The last parameter dbFailOnError is optional. It asks
the database to give an error message if something goes Confused about the dates? Access SQL uses American
wrong during the query, for instance if we try to insert dates, while the explanations in the booklet use middle
a record that violates referential integrity. If we omit it, European dates. See more in section 6.6.
there is no response in case of errors - nothing changes
in the database, and the program doesn't know about it. DELETE
Include dbFailOnError, particularly while you are The DELETE statement deletes all roomState records
testing the program. where roomID=14 and date=27/10/2002. In this case
there is only one such record.
INSERT
The figure shows a full INSERT statement. It inserts a 7.1.1 Temporary table for editing
single record into tblRoomState. It sets the roomID to
The user (or the program) can edit the fields in a simple
14, the date to 27th Oct 2002, and the state to 1. The
query. However, if the query contains a GROUP BY,
134 7. Access and SQL

Fig 7.1 Action queries - CRUD with SQL
Execution of an action query. Show a message in

case of errors
CurrentDb.Execute ”INSERT . . . ", dbFailOnError

Insert one record in tblRoomState.
Only these three fields get a value.
(The rest become Null.)
INSERT INTO tblRoomState (roomID, [date], state) Note the brackets on name to
VALUES (14, #10/27/02#, 1); distinguish from the built-in name
function
UPDATE tblRoomState SET state=2, personCount=1

WHERE roomID=14 and [date]=#10/27/02#; Set state to 2 and personCount to 1 for
all RoomStates with roomID=14 and
date=27-10-2002 (there is only one)
DELETE FROM tblRoomState
WHERE roomID=14 AND [date]=#10/27/02#;
Delete all RoomStates with roomID=14
and date=27-10-2002 (there is only one)
Delete all records from tblTemp.

Allow user to edit a GROUP BY query: Then copy all query records from
Make a temporary copy the current stay to tblTemp
CurrentDb.Execute ”DELETE FROM tblTemp;", dbFailOnError

CurrentDb.Execute ”INSERT INTO tblTemp SELECT * FROM qryStayRooms “ _
& “WHERE stayID=” & me.stayID & “;” , dbfailonerror
an outer join, or another complex query, the result can computes the SQL statement from several parts, one of
not be edited. From a usability perspective, there is them being me.StayID, the current stay number the user
often a need to edit such a query anyway. It can either is working on. Since the SQL statement is very long, it
be done through a dialog box (low usability), or is split into two lines with an underscore at the end of
through a temporary table that holds a copy of the the first line.
GROUP BY result. The user will edit the temporary
table directly. The bottom of the figure shows an Note also the SELECT * part that extracts all fields of
example of this. Let us see how it works. the query. This only works if tblTemp has the same
fields - and with the same names. It is possible to
In the hotel system the user sees a single record for extract only some of the fields - or rename them - in
each room booked by the guest. In the database there is order to match the fields in tblTemp. We could for
a roomState record for each date the room is booked, instance extract roomID (renamed to Room) and
but on the user interface we aggregate it to a single line Nights:
with start date and number of nights. The query
qryStayRooms does this, but the user can not edit the INSERT INTO tblTemp SELECT roomID AS Room, Nights . . .
result directly.
After the INSERT, the program can show tblTemp in a
The solution is to have a temporary table tblTemp with form so that the user can edit it. The program may
the same fields as qryStayRooms. The first statement either update the real database each time the user
deletes the present records in tblTemp. The next changes something in tblTemp, or it may update the
statement copies all the query records that belong to the whole thing when the user closes the form.
current stay into tblTemp. Note how the program
7. Access and SQL 135

7.2 UNION query
A UNION query combines two queries so that the second field with the value 5, selects the date field and
result contains all the records: finally the ticks field. It doesn't even care to rename the
ticks field.
SELECT . . . FROM . . . UNION
SELECT . . . FROM . . . ;
The figure shows the result ordered by roomID. Notice
that the last field is named quantity according to the
The two queries must have the same number of fields.
field name in the first query.
The queries need not have matching names or types.
The first field of each query goes into the first field of In the real hotel system, the result must be joined with
the result, the second field into the second field of the the roomState records to add the stayIDs, so that the
result, etc. The field name of the result is the field data end up on the right guest invoice. To do this
name from the first query. The field type of the result is properly, we also need time of day for the telephone
compatible with all the queries, for instance Long charges. We don't discuss this here.
Integer if one query has a simple integer, the other a
Long. Example 2: Combo box with a New option
The second example in Figure 7.2 shows a list of
The query grid cannot show a union query. You have service prices extended with a New option. The list is
to work in SQL view. You may make one of the intended for a Combo Box and gives a convenient way
queries with the query grid, then switch to SQL view to for the user to select an existing choice or add a new
add the second query. one.
You can set the presentation format of the fields in The list is computed with a union query. The last part
grid view, for instance date or number formats. Right- is a simple select of the fields in tblServiceType. The
click the field column and select properties. When you first part computes a constant record with the name
switch to SQL and add the union part, the presentation New, serviceID = 0 (dummy value), and price = Null.
format remains. (Editing the SQL version and Formally, this record is computed based on
switching back and forth between SQL view and grid tblServiceID, but any table might be used. However, to
view, may remove the format information.) save computer time, it is a good idea to use a short
table. Some developers use a dummy table with a
Example: Service charges
single record for the purpose.
The first example in Figure 7.2 takes a list of breakfast
services and adds a list of telephone charges to give a This query is used as the Control Source in the Combo
combined list of service charges. (The breakfast Box.
services are recorded by the receptionist, while the
telephone charges may be produced by a separate Note how we managed to get the currency sign ($) on
telephone system.) the list. We first used the query grid to make the last
part of the union. We set Property -> Format to
The combination is not quite straightforward because Currency for the price field. Then we switched to SQL
the breakfast list has a stayID field which is not wanted view and added the first part.
in the result. Furthermore, the telephone charges lack a
serviceID; they should end up with a serviceID of 5 An alternative is to compute the price field using the
(meaning telephone). Finally, what is called ticks in the Format function, for instance with the named format
telephone charges is called quantity in the result. Currency, which adds the regional currency symbol:
Format(tblServiceType.price, "currency") AS Price
The first part of the SQL statement selects the required
fields from tblServiceReceived. The second part selects
roomID from the telephone charges, computes a

Fig 7.2 Union: Concatenate two tables
List of breakfast services, etc.
List of telephone charges

from the telephone system. Combined list of all services.
SELECT roomID, serviceID, date, quantity FROM tblServiceReceived

UNION SELECT roomID, 5 AS serviceID, date, ticks FROM tblPhone;
List of service types extended with

New. Shown in table view, and as
drop-down list.
Start with query grid and last part.

Set column property for price
column to currency.
SELECT 0 AS serviceID, "New . . ." AS name, Null AS price Switch to SQL and add the first
FROM tblServiceType part (SELECT . . . UNION).
UNION SELECT serviceID, name, price FROM tblServiceType;

7.3 Subqueries (EXISTS, IN, ANY, ALL . . .)
A subquery is a select statement used inside another Notice the comparison operator BETWEEN. It is part
select statement. As an example, this statement selects of standard SQL, but not of VBA. This is one of the
records from tblA that have a value that is in tblB: few exceptions where an expression in SQL doesn't
work in VBA. The other way around, lots of VBA
SELECT . . . FROM tblA WHERE expressions don't work in standard SQL although they
v IN (SELECT w FROM tblB) work in Access SQL.
You can use subqueries in this way: Example 2: List of free rooms using NOT EXISTS
The second example lists only the free rooms. Again
EXISTS (SELECT * FROM . . . )
we select roomID from tblRoom, but in the WHERE
True if the subquery returns one or more records.
clause we check that the room has no roomStates in the
You can also write NOT EXISTS (. . .)
period we consider.
v IN (SELECT w FROM . . . )
True if the set of w's returned by the query contains Example 3: List of free rooms using NOT IN
the value v. You can also write v NOT IN (. . .) The third example also lists the free rooms, but selects
them in a different way. In the WHERE clause the
v IN (3, 7, a+b) subquery lists all roomStates in the period we consider.
True if v is in the list of values 3, 7, a+b. This is not The WHERE clause checks that the roomID from
really a subquery, because we write the list of tblRoom is not in this list.
values explicitly.
Correlated queries
v > ANY (SELECT w FROM . . . ) SQL specialists talk about correlated queries. The
True if the value v is larger than one or more of the subquery is correlated with the main query if it
w's returned by the query. You can also write v=, references fields in the main query. In the figure, the
v>, v>=, etc. You can write SOME instead of ANY. first two queries have correlated subqueries while
The meaning to the computer is the same. qryTest3 has not.
v > ALL (SELECT w FROM . . . )
Example 4: DISTINCT values only
True if the value v is larger than all of the w's A query may produce a list of records with duplicates.
returned by the query. You can also write v=, v>, QryTest 4 shows an example. It extracts all roomState
v>=, etc. records in the period we consider, and selects the
roomID. Since many rooms are occupied multiple
An alternative to v > ANY is:
v > (SELECT Min(w) FROM . . . ) times in this period, the same roomID will appear
Similarly an alternative to v > ALL is: many times.
v > (SELECT Max(w) FROM . . . )
QryTest 4A has added the word DISTINCT. This
EXISTS (SELECT . . . ) AND v > ANY (SELECT . . .) causes SQL to remove all duplicates.
You can combine subqueries in the same way as
other logical expressions. Example 5: Self-correlation
The fifth example shows how we can select records
In summary, you can use a subquery in a logical based on other records in the same table.
expression. You cannot join a subquery with other
subqueries, group it, etc. In order to do such things, The example is from the hotel system. A guest may
you have to store the subquery as a named query (we have booked several rooms for different periods. When
show an example in section 7.4). guests arrive, we want the receptionist to see a list of
the rooms booked for the arrival date.
Example: Used and free rooms
The first example in Figure 7.3 shows a list of rooms The query looks at each roomState record to see
with an indication of those used in the period 23/10 to whether it must be included in the list. It must be if the
26/10. date of this roomState is the arrival date for the
corresponding stay. The subquery finds the arrival date
In principle the query is quite simple. We query by looking at all roomStates that belong to this stay.
tblRoom and select the roomID and a computed value. The arrival date is the first date among these
The computed value makes the trick. It tests whether roomStates.
the room has a roomState record in the period 23/10 to
26/10. The result will be True or False. We give the Note how the subquery selects tblRoomState. It gives
result the name Used. the table an alias-name (T2) in order to compare these
room states with those from the outermost query. This
In this case we show the result as Yes/No. We have set is called a self-correlation.
Property -> Format to Yes/No for the Used field.

Fig 7.3 Subqueries (Exists, In, etc.)
qryTest:
SELECT roomID,
EXISTS (SELECT * FROM tblRoomState
WHERE tblRoomState.roomID = tblRoom.roomID AND
(tblRoomState.date BETWEEN #10/23/02# AND #10/26/02#))
AS Used
FROM tblRoom; Room list with indication
whether the room was used
between 23/10 and 26/10.
qryTest2:
SELECT roomID FROM tblRoom WHERE
NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM tblRoomState
WHERE tblRoomState.roomID = tblRoom.roomID AND
(tblRoomState.date BETWEEN #10/23/02# AND #10/26/02#));
Rooms free between

23/10 and 26/10
qryTest3:
SELECT roomID FROM tblRoom WHERE
roomID NOT IN (SELECT roomID FROM tblRoomState WHERE
tblRoomState.date BETWEEN #10/23/02# AND #10/26/02#);
qryTest4:
SELECT roomID FROM tblRoomState
WHERE tblRoomState.date BETWEEN #10/23/02# AND
#10/26/02#;
Room states in the period. Same

Duplicates removed roomID occurs multiple times
qryTest4A:
SELECT DISTINCT roomID FROM tblRoomState
WHERE tblRoomState.date BETWEEN #10/23/02# AND
#10/26/02#;
Rooms for the arrival date, i.e.

the first date of the stay.
qryTest5:
SELECT stayID, roomID, [date] FROM tblRoomState
WHERE [date] =
(SELECT Min([date]) FROM tblRoomState AS T2 WHERE
tblRoomState.stayID = T2.stayID)
ORDER BY stayID;
Self-correlation with alias.

7.4 Multiple join and matrix presentation
In this section we will look at queries that present data instead of the parentheses. It also adds room
in a matrix. A matrix is a table where the headings descriptions through an INNER JOIN with
aren't fixed but vary according to data in the database. tblRoomType. Finally, it renames the date columns to
the proper headings, for instance [21-10-02] for the
Figure 7.4 shows an example from the hotel system. It first date column.
is part of the rooms window, which shows when rooms
are occupied. The rooms are listed vertically and the The big query was actually made with the query grid,
dates horizontally. Whether a room is booked, as shown on the figure. This helped set the proper
occupied, etc. on a given date is shown as a number parentheses inside the SQL statement. As long as the
code. This is just to simplify the example a bit. In the statement contains only inner joins, the grouping with
real system the code is replaced with a mnemonic text, parentheses doesn't matter. The result will be the same
for instance Booked. no matter in which sequence the joins are made.
However, when outer joins are used, the sequence does
The principle matter.
The query behind the table follows this idea:
Standard SQL allows outer joins to be freely grouped
SELECT roomID . . . , r1.date, r2.date, r3.date with parentheses, but Access SQL does not. The
FROM tblRoom
LEFT JOIN (tblRoomState AS r1 WHERE date=first) ON . . . Access rule is that a table with an arrow pointing to it
LEFT JOIN (tblRoomState AS r2 WHERE date=first+1) ON . . . cannot have another arrow pointing to it, nor be
LEFT JOIN (tblRoomState AS r3 WHERE date=first+2) ON . . . connected with an arrow-less connection. If needed,
you can get around this rule by means of named
We start with tblRoom and left-join it with the room queries.
states belonging to the first date. This would give us
the roomID column and the first date column in the Dynamic headings, Form versus table
result. Next we left-join the result with the room states In order to make a true data matrix, we need to change
belonging to the next date. This would add the second the column headings according to the data. In the
date column in the result. And so on. example, the user chooses the period of dates. The
program then computes the corresponding SQL
Practice statements and inserts the appropriate dates. This is
Unfortunately this is wishful thinking, but not SQL. rather straightforward.
The main problem is that we cannot have a subquery
with WHERE after JOIN. It doesn't help to add All of this works okay if we just want to show the user
SELECT . . . FROM inside the parenthesis. Could we the result as a table. The query determines the table
have a WHERE after the last ON, such as this? headings.
LEFT JOIN tblRoomState AS r3 ON . . . However, the table presentation provides a poor user
WHERE r1.date=first AND r2.date=first+1 AND r3.date=first+2
interface. We may connect the table to a subform
This would work okay if we were using INNER JOINs, control (Access 2000 and 2003), but this gives us no
but we need outer joins to produce all the empty cells possibility to change the appearance, for instance
in the table. Another guess would be to set the removing navigation buttons or coloring the fields. The
necessary conditions in the ON criterion. This too is user may select an area of the table, but the program
not allowed in Access SQL. has no way to detect which area the user selects.
Named query. The solution is to use a named query The solution is to make a Form based on the query, and
for each of the parentheses. Figure 7.4 shows the full set its default view to Datasheet. (A datasheet looks
solution. Using the query grid in Access, we create a like a table, but behaves differently.) We may use the
query for each of the date columns in the result. The form as it is or connect it to a subform control. Now we
figure shows qryRoom1, the query for the first date can control the appearance of the datasheet, and the
column. It simply selects the roomState records for the program can "see" the user's selections of data cells.
first date in the period. QryRoom2 selects the
Unfortunately this introduces another problem. The
roomState records for the second date, and so on.
query doesn't any more determine the headings. They
The room grid is now computed with the big query. It are defined by the field labels on the form. In the next
follows the idea above, but uses the named queries section we show how to manage all of this.

Fig 7.4 Multiple join and matrix presentation
qryRoom1:
SELECT roomID, state FROM tblRoomState
WHERE tblRoomState.date=#10/21/2002#;
qryRoomGrid:
SELECT tblRoom.roomID, tblRoomType.description, qryRoom1.state AS [21-10-02],
qryRoom2.state AS [22-10-02], qryRoom3.state AS [23-10-02]
FROM tblRoomType INNER JOIN (((tblRoom
LEFT JOIN qryRoom1 ON tblRoom.roomID = qryRoom1.roomID)
ON tblRoomType.roomType = tblRoom.roomType;

7.5 Dynamic matrix presentation
In this section we show how to make a dynamic matrix control, then the Form connected to the control, and
as a Form in datasheet view. Compared to showing the finally the label in the form.
matrix as a query table, the Form approach allows us to
control the presentation better and let the program We use the automatic date conversion when setting the
"see" what the user selects. caption. It uses the regional date format - exactly what
we want when showing the date to the user.
Figure 7.5 shows the details of the solution. The form
at the top left is an outline of the hotel system's rooms Updating the subform
window. The user can enter the first date of the period, Finally the procedure has to update the subform
click Find, and the system updates the subform (the according to the new queries. This is done by setting
datasheet) to show room occupation from that date and the record source once more to qryRoomGrid. This
on. Initially, we assume that the period is always three causes Access to compute the query from scratch.
days.
Updating the various parts of a form is a mystery - at
QryRoomGrid is exactly as the version in the previous least to me. Through experiments I have found the
section, except for the AS parts of the SELECT clause. solution above. It seemed more natural to use the built-
The room states are now renamed to C1, C2, C3 rather in requery method for a form, for instance in this way:
than the dates in the period. This ensures that the states Me.subRoomGrid.Form.Requery
always end up in the proper form fields, no matter
However, Access (or the Jet engine) doesn't figure out
which dates we work with.
that something has changed in the named queries, and
The datasheet is based on the subform shown to the as a result doesn't update anything.
right. This subform was generated with the Form
Handling varying number of columns
Wizard using qryRoomGrid as the record source. It
The techniques above can be generalized to a period of
uses a columnar layout (see section 3.2.1). The date
N days, where N is defined by the user. First the Click
fields are bound to C1, C2, and C3 in the query. (The
procedure needs to compute also qryRoomGrid with
names of the controls will be cbo1, cbo2, etc., but this
C1, C2 . . . CN and N nested parentheses. This is not
is not important.) We have manually given the labels
too hard.
the names L1, L2, L3.
We might create a variable number of named queries in
The program doesn't have to compute the SQL-
a loop where i runs from 1 to N. The inner part of the
statement in qryRoomGrid. This query is based on the
loop would use this statement to create a named query:
named queries qryRoom1, 2, and 3, and the program
has to compute these when the user clicks Find. The Call currentdb.CreateQueryDef ("qryRoom" & i, "select . . . ")
figure shows the Click procedure for cmdFindRoom.
However, making a variable number of fields on the
First the procedure stores the main part of the query in form cannot be made dynamically. Adding fields can
the string variable s. This is only to save a lot of only be made in design mode.
writing since the string is used in three queries.
In practice we have to plan for a maximum number of
Next the procedure computes the SQL-statement in date columns, for instance 20. We construct
qryRoom1. The procedure computes qryRoom2 and fsubRoomGrid with 20 date fields, cbo1, cbo2 . . .
qryRoom3 in the same way. Note how we address the cbo20, and bind them to C1, C2 . . . C20. We also
named query from VBA, using make 20 named queries, qryRoom1 . . . qryRoom20.
CurrentDB.QueryDefs
With a proper Click procedure this works fine except
Notice how we compute the date comparison, for for a little detail: The datasheet always shows 20
instance columns even if the user only asked for 3. The last
SELECT . . . WHERE date = 37550;
columns will be blank if the query didn't generate
We explicitly convert the contents of txtDate (the user's something.
search criterion) to Double. The &-operation will then
translate it to the string "37550". (See more on date This is easy to correct. The procedure can hide the last
comparison in section 5.2.3.) columns. It can for instance hide the 4th date column in
this way:
Changing the headings
Me.subRoomGrid.Form!cbo4.ColumnHidden=True
The next part of the procedure sets the dynamic
headings. It sets the captions of the three labels to the In the procedure, the number 4 is given by a variable,
proper date. Notice how we first address the subform for instance j. The statement would then be:

Fig 7.5 Dynamic matrix presentation
txtDate
subRoomGrid
Column headings are the label captions.

qryRoomGrid: Label names: L1, L2, L3
SELECT tblRoom.roomID, tblRoomType.description,
qryRoom1.state AS C1, qryRoom2.state AS C2, qryRoom3.state AS C3
FROM tblRoomType INNER JOIN (((tblRoom LEFT JOIN qryRoom1 . . .
frmRooms:
Private Sub cmdFindRoom_Click()
. . . WHERE date = 37550;
Dim s As String
s = "SELECT roomID, state From tblRoomState WHERE date = "
CurrentDb.QueryDefs!qryRoom1.SQL = s & CDbl(Me.txtDate) & ";"
CurrentDb.QueryDefs!qryRoom2.SQL = s & CDbl(Me.txtDate+1) & ";" . . . WHERE date = 37551;
CurrentDb.QueryDefs!qryRoom3.SQL = s & CDbl(Me.txtDate+2) & ";"
Me.subRoomGrid.Form!L1.Caption = Me.txtDate
Me.subRoomGrid.Form!L2.Caption = Me.txtDate + 1 Set RecordSource again.
Me.subRoomGrid.Form!L3.Caption = Me.txtDate + 2 (Requery doesn’t notice that the
Me.subRoomGrid.Form.RecordSource = "qryRoomGrid" named queries changed.)
End Sub
Me.subRoomGrid.Form("cbo" & j).ColumnHidden=True The queries are also more complex because the user
can ask for rooms that are free in a certain period,
See section 5.5.7 for more on hiding columns, rooms of a certain type, etc. However, the solution
adjusting their width, etc. follows the ideas above.
The real rooms window Another issue is to let the user select rooms and period
In the real hotel system, the user sees the days around from the matrix. This is discussed in section 5.5.8.
the first day he asks for and the days around the last
day. When the period is long, all the days in the middle
are lumped together with a heading saying ". . . ".

7.6 Crosstab and matrix presentation
The previous sections show how hard it is to make a however.
data matrix. So there is a good reason that Access
provides a non-standard SQL feature for making data Finally, we have marked state as the value to be shown
matrices: the Crosstab query. inside the matrix. Since a crosstab is a kind of
aggregate query, we can only show data as aggregate
A simple example - room number versus date functions. In this case we have used the aggregate
Figure 7.6A shows a simple example. We want a function First. Since the bundle has at most one room
matrix with dates running horizontally and rooms state, we could as well have used Max or Min.
running vertically. In the matrix we show the room
state for each date (as a numeric code for simplicity). The figure also shows the SQL version of the query.
The inner part of the query is an ordinary SELECT -
This matrix is made with the query shown to the right. GROUP BY query. The group-by attribute becomes
It is based on tblRoomState. We have used the menu the row heading. There may be several group-by
attributes, and then there will be several row headings.
Query -> Crosstab Query
The first part of the query is a non-standard thing, the
to add the Crosstab gridline to the grid. We have TRANSFORM part. It defines the value to be shown in
marked roomId as a row heading and date as a column a cell. The last part is another non-standard thing, the
heading. Note how we group data by roomId and date. PIVOT part. It defines the attribute to be used as the
Each group is a bundle of room state records to be column heading.
shown somehow in the matrix cell. In the hotel system,
each bundle will contain at most one record since a Note the query name: qxtbRoomGrid. The prefix qxtb
room cannot have more than one state for a given date. tells the programmer that it is a crosstab query.
This is just how it happens to be in the hotel case,
Fig 7.6A Crosstab query
Query ->
Crosstab
Row heading Column heading
qxtbRoomGrid:
Ordinary SELECT TRANSFORM First(tblRoomState.state) AS FirstOfstate
. . . GROUP BY SELECT tblRoomState.roomID
FROM tblRoomState
GROUP BY tblRoomState.roomID
PIVOT tblRoomState.date;
Value in cell –
Column heading Row heading aggregate data

Outer join and several row headings column with the heading <>. It is caused by the outer
Figure 7.6B shows a more complex crosstab. We want join producing a row with a Null date since no room
to show also the room description. Furthermore we state matched room 22.
want to show all rooms, whether they are used or not.
(In the top of the figure, room 22 wasn't shown because Figure 7.6C shows how to get rid of the Null column
it wasn't used.) (<>). Instead of grouping by date, we group by a
computed date:
The new crosstab is based on three tables: tblRoom-
State, tblRoom, and tblRoomType. We use an outer d: IIf( IsNull(date), #24-10-02#, date)
join for tblRoomStates and tblRoom in order to include
The effect of this is that Null dates are replaced by a
all rooms. We mark roomID and description as row
specific date in the range of dates we consider. Records
headings.
with a Null date also have a Null state, so they don't
The result is as shown. We have now got room 22 in show up as being used.
the matrix. Unfortunately, we have also got a strange
Fig 7.6B Outer join and two row headings
Unused room Null date for the

now included unused room
Fig 7.6C Avoiding the Null date
Avoiding the Null date
Dates with no used

rooms are excluded

Fig 7.6D Restricting the date range
Avoiding the Null date
Dates with no used

rooms are excluded
Restricting the date range

to 24/10 - 27/10
Restricting the date range The IN-clause also causes the computer to discard all
In practice we cannot show a matrix with all the dates. dates that are not in the IN-list. Thus we don't need the
It would require hundreds of columns. We want to WHERE-clause anymore.
restrict the query to a specific range of dates.
If you try to look for the IN-clause in design view (the
In Figure 7.6D we restrict the range of computed dates query grid), you won't find it. It has become a property
to those between 24-10-02 and 27-10-02 (European of the query grid. To see it, right click inside the
date format). diagram area and select Properties.
The result is as shown. We got rid of the <> column Unfortunately, the result looks ugly. The column
and see only the dates in the restricted range. The only headings have the programmer format, and I have not
problem is that we don't get a column for every date in been able to find a way to change it. For other fields of
the range. For instance 26-10-02 is missing because no the query, we can set field properties, for instance the
room is used this date. display format. But not for the column headings. (I
would call this a bug in Access.)
Including all dates in the range
We might include all dates in the range by means of an The IN-trick works okay if we use something else than
additional outer join. To do this we need a table of all dates for the headings. We will see an example now.
dates in the range, but this is not an existing part of the
data model. The program might generate such a table, Using the query in a subform
but let as utilize another feature in the crosstab. In a good user interface, we wouldn't present the query
directly to the user, but embed it in a subform. To make
In Figure 7.6E we have added an IN-clause to the the column headings change dynamically, we make the
PIVOT part of the SQL statement. The PIVOT part same trick as in section 7.5.
specifies the column headings, and now we have
explicitly asked for all the dates in the range. Notice We let the query generate column headings that are the
that we have to use US date formats in SQL. texts C0, C1, C2 etc. They will bind to the controls C0,
C1, etc. in the subform. The program will dynamically
set the labels of these controls to the real dates.

Fig 7.6E Including all dates
Headings cannot be formatted

(Looks like an error in Access)
26-10-2002 is
now included
qxtbRoomGrid4:
TRANSFORM First(tblRoomState.state) AS FirstOfstate
SELECT tblRoom.roomID, tblRoomType.description
FROM tblRoomType INNER JOIN (tblRoom LEFT JOIN tblRoomState ON . . . )
GROUP BY tblRoom.roomID, tblRoomType.description
PIVOT IIf(IsNull(date), #10/24/2002#, date)
IN (#10/24/2002#, #10/25/2002#, #10/26/2002#, #10/27/2002#);
Required column headings In design view, this list appears as the

Column Heading property of the query
qxtbRoomGrid5:
TRANSFORM First(tblRoomState.state) AS FirstOfstate
SELECT . . .
PIVOT IIf(IsNull(date), "C0", "C" & (date-#10/24/2002#))
IN ("C0", "C1", "C2", "C3");
Column headings are used as

control names in the subform
The bottom of Figure 7.6E shows the query to be used. Crosstab restrictions
We compute the column heading with this expression: Crosstab is great for quick and dirty solutions where
you want to show the relationship between two
IIf( IsNull(date), "C0", "C" & (date - #10/24/2002#)) attributes in a query. This is for instance the case for
experimental data mining where the user defines
Null dates are replaced by the text C0. Other dates are
queries on his own.
replaced by a C followed by the date index: 0 for the
first day in the period, 1 for the next day, and so on. However, when designing a production system such as
a hotel system, Crosstab provides too little flexibility.
Notice that although the IN-clause has the texts in
Crosstab can for instance not handle subqueries or
quotes, the result shows the text in user format without
Having, even if they occur in named queries.
quotes.

8. References
Jennings, Roger (1999): Using Microsoft Access 2000 Litwin, Paul; Getz, Ken & Gilbert, Mike (1997):
- special edition. ISBN 0-7897-1606-2. QUE, Indi- Access 97 - Developer's Handbook. Sybex, San
anapolis (1300 pages). An advanced textbook for Francisco. ISBN 0-7821-1941-7 (1500 pages). The
learning how to make Access applications. Only professional developer's handbook for making
200 of the pages use Visual Basic. Comprehensive Access applications with Visual Basic. Has a
lists of all icons and shortcut keys, all functions comprehensive chapter on SQL and the differences
used in expressions, all date formats, etc. Also cov- between Access SQL and standard SQL. Also cov-
ers using Access for Web applications and com- ers how to combine Access with other MS-Office
bining Access with other MS-Office applications applications in a programmed fashion ("automa-
("automation"). The index in this version is fine. tion"), multi-user aspects, and configuration man-
(The 1997 version had a useless index.) agement. It is a book for looking up advanced top-
ics, not a book to study from the beginning.
148 8. References
Index
! (bang operator), 41, 69 - datasheet, VBA, 94
! versus dot, 71 B combo box
" (quotes inside quotes), 74 bang operator ( ! ), 41, 69 - column width, 34
" (strings), 122 - versus dot, 71, 122 - enumeration type, 14, 24
#Error, 40 BeforeUpdate (form event), 86 - hiding the code (Column
#Name?, 41 BeforeUpdate (text box event), 78 Width), 34
& (concatenation, VBA), 124 BETWEEN (operator), 124 - table lookup, 26
& (label control), 22 BETWEEN (SQL), 138 - with a New choice, 136
* (all fields), 52 BOF (begin-of-file, recordset), command (in menus), 48
[ ] (name parenthesis), 40, 54, 91 108 command button, 84
+ - * / (VBA), 124 BookMark (recordset), 108 - Cancel (property), 84
< <= . . . (VBA), 124 Boolean field, 11 - Click (event), 84
= (assignment, VBA), 116 Border Style (on form), 21 - Default (property), 84
= (computed control), 40 bound column (in combo box), 26 - drawing and Wizard, 18
bound controls, 40 comment (VBA), 116
A bound forms, 32 compact database, 15
Abs function (VBA), 130 bound forms (main and subform), Compare Option (VBA), 128
AbsolutePosition (recordset), 108 66 comparison of dates, 76
Access file formats, 8 bound recordset, 106 comparison of texts (Like), 64,
Access versions, 6 break program, 98 124
action queries, 134 breakpoints (Visual Basic code), composite search, 76
Activate (form event), 86 82 computed controls, 40
ActiveForm, 110 button. See command button computed fields (query), 58
AddNew (recordset), 108 computed SQL, 74, 76, 102
addressing forms and objects, 69 C conditional color and format, 42
addressing variables (VBA), 122 calendar control, 22 conditional statements (VBA),
AfterUpdate (form event), 86 calendar control (DT Picker), 22 116
AfterUpdate (text box event), 72, Cancel (button property), 84 constant list (Visual Basic help),
78 capital letters 82
aggregate query, 58 - query, 54 constants (VBA), 122
- editing the data, 67, 134 - Visual Basic, 41, 81 - Null, Empty, Nothing, 122
- in subform, 66 Caption (on form), 21 continuous form, 30
alias (query, AS), 58 Caption (on text box label), 28 Control Box (on form), 21
align Cartesian product (query), 54 Control Source (text box), 28
- controls, 20 Case Select (VBA), 116 control tips (pop-up help), 50
- controls (grid), 18 Change (event), 73 controls, 70
- text in text box, 28 Change (text box event), 78 - adding a field, 34
ALL (SQL), 138 checkbox - align, 20
AllowAdditions (form), 87 - drawing, 22 - align (grid), 18
AllowDeletions (form), 87 Choose function (VBA), 128 - bound and unbound, 40
AllowEdits (form), 87 Chr (VBA), 128 - calendar, 22
And, Or . . . (composite search), CInt, CDate . . . (VBA), 125 - checkbox, 22
76 class module. See module - combo box
And, Or, Not . . . (VBA), 124 Click (command button), 84 - enumeration type, 24
application title (startup settings), clone (recordset), 104, 106, 108 - hiding the code (Column
48 Close (form event), 87 Width), 34
area selection (datasheet, VBA), Close (recordset), 108 - table look up, 26
94 color - command button, 18
arrays (data type, VBA), 120 - datasheet, 34, 42 - properties, 84
AS (query, alias), 58 - on controls, 22 - computed, 40
Asc (VBA), 128 - value dependent, 42 - DateTime picker, 22
assignment (VBA), 116 column format, 136 - front/back, 22
autoformat (on form), 21 column hidden (VBA), 94 - label, 18, 28
AutoNumber field, 11 column sequence (subform), 34 - label (delete/add), 20
- setting the value, 134 column sequence (VBA), 94 - line, 22
average (AVG, query), 60 column width - moving and sizing, 20
- combo box, 34 - name (programmer's), 28
- datasheet view, 34 - option group/radio button, 44
Index 149
- rectangle, 22 - single, 120 DLookup, DMin . . . (VBA), 128
- subform, 32 - static, 122 Docking windows, 80
- tab order, 28 - string, 120 double field (in table), 11
- tab sheet, 44 - text, 10, 120 dynaset, 52
- text box, 18 - type, 120 - editing the data, 53
- events, 72, 78 - variant, 120 - group by, 61
- properties, 28, 72 - yes/no, 11
ControlTip (text box), 28 database E
conversion functions (type, - compaction, 15 Edit (recordset), 108
VBA), 125 - creation, 6 Empty (VBA), 122
correlated query (SQL), 138 - multiple connectors, 16 Enabled (text box property), 28
COUNT (query), 60 - network structure, 16 engine (database), 55, 68
create - objects, 68 Enter (text box event), 78
- controls, 18 - self-reference, 16 enumeration type
- database, 6 - SQL-engines, 55, 68 - combo box, 24
- event procedure, 80 - tree structure, 16 - table field, 10
- forms, 18 - versus files, 6 - VBA, 121
- menu, 46 DataEntry (form property), 88 EOF (end-of-file, recordset), 108
- module (class), 110, 112 datasheet Err (error object), 117
- relationships, 12 - area selection (VBA), 94 Error (in computed value), 40
- single record (VBA), 88 - as subform, 31, 36 error handling
- table and fields, 7 - column hidden (VBA), 94 - before update, 78
criteria (composite), 76 - column sequence, 34 - Error preview, 97
criteria (live search), 74 - column sequence (VBA), 94 - MsgBox, 50
criteria (user-defined), 64 - column width, 34 - On Error GoTo, 110, 117
Crosstab (SQL), 144 - column width (VBA), 94 error messages (MsgBox), 50
CRUD (Create, Read . . . ) - font and color, 34, 42 events, 72–79
- form, 87, 90 - mockup, 36 - Activate (form), 86
- recordset, 102 - sorting, 34 - AfterUpdate (form), 86
- SQL, 134 - versus form view, 38 - AfterUpdate (text box), 72, 78
currency (data type), 120 date comparison, 76 - BeforeUpdate (form), 86
Current (form event), 78, 86 date format - BeforeUpdate (text box), 78
current record (in a form), 38, 93 - Format function, 126 - Change (text box), 73, 78
current record (in recordset), 68, - in controls, 126 - Click (text box), 84
104 - regional settings, 132 - Close (form), 87
CurrentDb, 102, 134 date/time field, 11 - command button, 84
date/time functions (VBA), 130 - creating event procedures, 80
D DateCreated (recordset), 108 - Current (form), 78, 86
DAO 3.6 (recordset), 102 DateTime Picker, 22 - Deactivate (form), 87
data entry dbFailOnError, 134 - deleting event procedures, 81
- into table, 8 Deactivate (form event), 87 - Dirty (form), 86
- shortcut keys, 8 debug (Visual Basic code), 81 - Enter (text box), 78
data type, 10, 120 debug window (immediate), 50, - Error (form), 97
- array, 120 69 - form, 86
- AutoNumber, 11 declarations (variables, VBA), - form (sequence), 86
- AutoNumber (setting the 120 - GotFocus (form), 86
value), 134 Default (button property), 84 - GotFocus (text box), 78
- Boolean, 11, 120 DELETE (record, SQL), 134 - KeyDown (text box), 78
- Byte, 120 Delete (recordset), 108 - KeyPress (text box), 78
- currency, 120 delete event procedures, 81 - KeyUp (text box), 78
- date/time, 11, 120 designer role, 6 - Load (form), 86
- double, 11, 120 detail area (connected to a list), - logging, 81
- enumeration (lookup), 14 42 - MouseDown, Click, etc., 78
- foreign key (type match), 11, developer role, 6, 132 - Open (form), 86
12 Dialog box (form), 92 - Resize (form), 86, 100
- form, 120 Dim (declaration, VBA), 120 - text box, 72
- integer, 11, 120 Dirty (form event), 86 - text box (sequence), 78
- long integer, 11, 120 display formats (regional - Timer, 98
- memo, 10, 120 settings), 132 - Unload (form), 86
- number, 10 DISTINCT (SQL), 138 - wait for, 98
- object, 120 Execute (CurrentDb), 134
150 Index
EXISTS (SQL), 138 - form view versus datasheet - in subform, 66
view, 38
F - Forms object, 69 H
field (in table). See also data type - GotFocus (event), 86 HAVING (aggregate query), 54,
- combo box, 14 - grid, 18 60
- enumeration type, 10 - KeyPreview, 97 Height (size property), 28, 100
field list (for adding controls), 34 - Load (event), 86 help (for field types), 7
file formats (Access versions), 8 - main form, 30 help (in Visual Basic code), 82,
filter properties (form), 87 - menu connection, 48 83
financial functions (VBA), 130 - MinMax buttons, 21 help (pop-up), 50
FindFirst, FindNext . . . - mockup, 36 Hex function (VBA), 130
(recordset), 108 - moving and sizing (VBA), 100 hotel system, 4
FIRST/LAST (query), 60 - multiple instances, 99 hotel system (room grid), 4, 94,
focus - navigation buttons, 21 140
- dialog box, 89 - New (create open form), 99
- GotFocus (form event), 86 - open, 86 I
- SetFocus, 86 - Open (event), 86 If Then (VBA), 116
font (datasheet), 34, 42 - OpenArgs, 89 IIf function (VBA), 128
For Next statements (VBA), 118 - OpenForm parameters, 89 immediate window (debug), 50,
foreign key, 11, 12 - record selection (current 69
- combo box, 26 record), 93 IN (operator), 124
form, 86–101 - record selector, 21 IN (SQL), 138
- Activate (event), 86 - Recordset, 106 initial values (VBA), 120
- ActiveForm (current), 110 - RecordSetClone, 106 Input Mask (text box), 28
- AfterUpdate (event), 86 - Resize (event), 86, 100 INSERT (record, SQL), 134
- AllowAdditions, 87 - saving, 22 integer field (in table), 11
- AllowDeletions, 87 - Scroll Bars, 21 IRR (internal-rate-of-return,
- AllowEdits, 87 - SelTop, SelHeight, etc. (VBA), VBA), 130
- area selection (VBA), 94 94 Is operator (VBA), 124
- autoformat, 21 - size, 100 IsArray, IsDate . . . (VBA), 130
- BeforeUpdate (event), 86 - sorting datasheet rows, 34
- Border Style, 21 - style (AutoFormat), 21 J
- bound, 32 - subform, 30–39 Jet engine (database), 68
- bound main and subform, 66 - Timer, 98 JOIN (multiple joins), 140
- caption, 21 - Unload (event), 86 JOIN (query), 52, 54, 56
- close, 86 Form reference (in subform), 71,
- Close (event), 87 K
122
- column sequence, 34 key field (foreign key), 11, 12
format
- column sequence (VBA), 94 key field (primary key), 7
- columns, 136
- column width, 34 keyboard handling
- date in controls, 126
- column width (VBA), 94 - function keys, 97
- Format function (VBA), 126
- continuous form, 30 - shortcut keys on controls, 22
- input mask, 28, 132
- Control Box, 21 - shortcuts (built in), 8, 22
- regional settings, 132
- create single record (VBA), 88 - tab order, 28
- text box property, 28
- creation, 18 KeyCode (VBA), 97
Forms object, 69
- CRUD (multi-purpose, VBA), KeyDown (text box event), 78
front/back (on forms), 22
90 KeyPress (text box event), 78
function (in menu), 112
- CRUD control, 87 KeyPreview (form), 97
function (procedure), 110, 120
- Current (event), 78, 86 KeyUp (text box event), 78
function keys (F2, F3 . . .VBA),
- DataEntry property, 88 97 L
- datasheet view for subform, 31
label (Caption), 28
- Deactivate (event), 87 G
label (delete/add), 20
- design view (shortcut keys), 22 GetRows (recordset), 96, 108
label (for text box), 18
- Dialog box, 92 global variables (in modules), 114
LastUpdated (recordset), 108
- Dirty (event), 86 GotFocus (form event), 86
LBound (array bound, VBA), 128
- edit single record (VBA), 88 GotFocus (text box event), 78
LCase function (VBA), 128
- error preview, 97 grid (for queries), 52
Left (position property), 28, 100
- event sequence, 86 grid (on forms), 18
Left function . . . (VBA), 128
- Filter, 87 GROUP BY (aggregate query),
Len function (VBA), 128
- form view for subform, 36 54, 58
Like (text comparison), 64, 124
- editing the data, 67, 134
Index 151
limit to list (in Combo Box), 24 name of control, 28 primary key, 7
line (on form), 22 Name? (error in computed value), printing (mockup screens), 50
list separator (regional settings), 41 procedure (in menu), 112
132 named query (SQL), 140, 142 procedure (public function), 110,
list with detail area, 42 national settings, 132 120
live search, 74 navigation (current record), 93 procedure (shared), 76
Load (form event), 86 navigation (shortcut keys), 8 program break, 98
Locked (text box property), 28 navigation buttons (on form), 21 project explorer (VBA tool), 80
logging (of events), 81 network structure (in database), properties
logical operators (And, Or), 124 16 - AllowAdditions (form), 87
long integer field (in table), 11 New (create new object), 99 - AllowDeletions (form), 87
lookup field new-line character Chr(10), 92 - AllowEdits (form), 87
- combo box, 26 NoMatch (recordset), 109 - Border Style (form), 21
- enumeration type, 14 Nothing (VBA), 122 - Cancel (command button), 84
- hiding the code (Column NPV (net-present-value, VBA), - Caption (label), 28
Width), 34 130 - Caption (on form), 21
lookup Wizard, 14, 24, 26 Null - ColumnHidden (text box, etc.),
loop (forced break), 98 - blank fields at outer join, 56 94
Loop statements (VBA), 118 - comparing with, 62, 77, 122 - ColumnOrder (text box, etc.),
- in computations, 62, 124 94
M number field (in table), 10 - ColumnWidth (text box, etc.),
main form, 30 number format (regional 94
math functions (VBA), 130 settings), 132 - command button, 84
matrix presentation (with SQL), - Control Box (form), 21
140, 142 O - Control Source (text box), 28
Me (as parameter, VBA), 121 object browser (Visual Basic), 83 - ControlTip, 28
Me (this object/form, VBA), 72, objects - DataEntry (form), 88
122 - addressing, 69 - Default (command button), 84
memo field (in table), 10 - controls, 70 - Enabled (text box), 28
menus (toolbars), 46–49 - database, 68 - Filter (form), 87
- commands, 48 - Forms, 69 - Format (text box), 28
- commands (VBA), 112 - in Access, 68–71 - KeyPreview (form), 97
- connect to form, 48 - recordset, 68 - label, 28
- creation, 46 - screen, 110 - Left, 28, 100
- pop-up, 46 - through VBA, 69 - Locked (text box), 28
- show all on list, 20 Oct function (VBA), 130 - MinMax buttons (form), 21
- startup settings, 48 OldValue (text box), 72 - Name (programmer's), 28
messages (MsgBox), 50, 92 On Error (VBA), 117 - OldValue (text box), 72
MIN/MAX (query), 60 Open (form event), 86 - record set, 104, 108
MinMax buttons (on form), 21 OpenArgs (form parameter), 89 - Scroll Bars (on form), 21
mockup OpenForm (parameters), 89 - Scroll Bars (text box), 28
- datasheet, 36 OpenRecordSet, 109 - SelHeight (on form), 94
- screen prints, 50 operators (VBA), 124 - SelLeft (on form), 94
Modal dialog (form), 92 Option Compare (VBA), 128 - SelTop (on form), 94
module (class), 80, 110, 122 option group (radio buttons), 44 - SelWidth (on form), 94
- creating and naming, 112 ORDER BY (query), 54, 62 - size and position, 28, 100
- global variables, 114, 122 ordering - subform, 38, 70
MouseDown, MouseUp (events), - controls (front/back), 22 - Tab Index, 28
78 - controls (tab order), 28 - Text (text box), 72
Move, MoveFirst . . . (recordset), - datasheet rows, 34 - Text Align (text box), 28
108 - records in query, 62 - text box, 28, 72
moving and sizing OUTER JOIN (query), 56 - through VBA, 69, 70
- controls, 20 - TimerInterval, 98
- forms, 100 P - Top, 28, 100
MsgBox, 50, 92 Parent reference (from subform), - Value (text box), 72
multiple connectors (in database), 97, 122 - Width, 28, 100
16 partial referential integrity, 12 property list (Visual Basic help),
multiple form instances, 99 Partition (operator), 124 82
pop-up help, 50 public (function), 110
N pop-up menu, 46
Name (recordset), 109 prefixes (for controls, etc.), 38
152 Index
Q - bound to form, 106 - datasheet rows, 34
queries, 52–67 - clone, 104, 106 - records in query, 55, 62
- action, 134 - CRUD control, 102 Space function (VBA), 128
- aggregate, 58 - DAO 3.6, 102 SQL. See also queries
- in subform, 66 - properties, 104, 108 - computed, 74, 76, 102
- alias (AS), 58 rectangle (on form), 22 - how it works, 54
- ALL, 138 reference card (VBA), 116 SQL engine (database), 55, 68
- all fields (*), 52 referential integrity, 12 square brackets [name
- ANY, 138 regional settings, 132 parenthesis], 40, 54, 91
- average (AVG), 60 relationships, 12 startup settings (menus etc.), 48
- Cartesian product, 54 - referential integrity, 12 statements (VBA), 116
- computed fields, 58 repair database, 15 Static (declaration, VBA), 122
- computed SQL, 74, 76, 102 Requery (recordset), 109 StDev (query), 60
- correlated, 138 Resize (form event), 86, 100 stop program, 98
- COUNT, 60 role StrComp (VBA), 128
- Crosstab, 144 - developer, 6, 132 string functions (VBA), 128
- CRUD, 134 - user, 6, 132 strings ", 122
- DELETE, 134 room grid (hotel system), 4, 94, strings (nested), 74
- DISTINCT, 138 140 strings, multi-line, Chr(10), 92
- dynaset, 52 row source (in Combo Box), 26 style (on form), 21
- group by, 61, 134 subform, 30–39
- editing the data, 53, 134 S - columnar, 31
- EXISTS, 138 save - datasheet versus form view, 38
- FIRST/LAST, 60 - form, 22 - datasheet view, 31
- grid, 52 - module (class), 110 - Form property, 71, 122
- GROUP BY, 54, 58 - record, 8 - form view, 36, 38
- editing the data, 67, 134 - record (VBA), 88 - Parent property, 97, 122
- in subform, 66 - Visual Basic code, 81 - properties, 38, 70
- HAVING, 54, 60 Screen (VBA object), 110 - subform control, 32
- IN, 138 Scroll Bars (on form), 21 subquery (SQL), 138
- INSERT, 134 Scroll Bars (on text box), 28 subroutine (procedure, VBA),
- JOIN, 52, 54 searching 120
- JOIN (multiple), 140 - live search, 74 SUM (query), 60
- live search, 74 - many criteria, 76
- MIN/MAX, 60 - user criteria in grid, 64 T
- named (stored), 140, 142 security (when opening a Tab Index (cursor movement), 28
- ORDER BY, 54, 62 database), 8 tab sheet (control), 44
- OUTER JOIN, 56 SELECT (query), 54, 55 table
- SELECT, 54, 55 Select Case (VBA), 116 - as subform, 36
- SQL, 54 self-reference (in computed - creation, 7
- SQL-engine, 55, 68 expressions), 40 - data entry, 8
- StDev, 60 self-reference (in database), 16 - shadow copy, 16
- subquery, 138 SelTop, SelHeight, SelWidth, Text (text box property), 72
- SUM, 60 SelLeft (datasheet, VBA), 94 text box, 18
- UNION, 136 SendKeys, 98 - AfterUpdate (event), 72, 78
- UPDATE, 134 Set statement (VBA), 116 - BeforeUpdate (event), 78
- user criteria in grid, 64 SetFocus (VBA), 86 - Change (event), 73, 78
- Var, 60 shadow table, 16 - Control Source, 28
- WHERE, 54 shared procedure, 76 - ControlTip, 28
QueryDefs (VBA), 142 Shift (KeyCode, VBA), 97 - Enabled, 28
quick info (Visual Basic help), 82 shortcut keys - Enter (event), 78
quotes (nested "), 74 - data entry, 8 - event sequence, 78
- for change of view, 22 - events, 72
R - navigation, 8 - Format, 28
radio buttons (option group), 44 - underlined letter on control, 22 - GotFocus (event), 78
record shortcut menu (pop-up menu), 46 - KeyDown (event), 78
- saving, 8 size unit (twips), 100 - KeyPress (event), 78
- saving (VBA), 88 sizing and moving - KeyUp (event), 78
record selector (on form), 21 - controls, 20 - Locked, 28
RecordCount (recordset), 109 - forms, 100 - MouseDown, Click, etc., 78
recordset, 68, 102–9 sorting - OldValue, 72
Index 153
- properties, 28, 72 undo drawing, 20 - debug command, 81
- Scroll Bars, 28 undo lookup-Wizard, 14 - help, 83
- Text (property), 72 undo update (VBA), 79, 84 - object browser, 83
- Text Align, 28 UNION (SQL), 136, 138 - objects in Access, 68–71
- Value, 72 Unload (form event), 86 - pop-up help, 82
text comparison (Like), 64, 124 unsafe expressions (when - project explorer, 80
text field (in table), 10 opening a database), 8 - reference card, 116
time/date field (in table), 11 update (record), 8 - saving the code, 81
time/date functions (VBA), 130 UPDATE (record, SQL), 134 - tools, 80–83
Timer event, 98 update (record, VBA), 88
TimerInterval, 98 Update (recordset), 109 W
toolbars. See menus user role, 6, 132 wait for event, 98
toolbox (for drawing), 18 user windows (forms), 18 week number (Format function),
tools (Visual Basic), 80–83 126
Top (position property), 28, 100 V WHERE (query), 54
tree structure (in database), 16 Value (text box), 72 While statements (VBA), 118
trim functions (VBA), 128 Var (query), 60 Width (size property), 28, 100
twips (size unit), 100 variables (declarations, VBA), wildcarding (text comparison),
type check functions (VBA), 130 120 64, 124
type conversion (VBA), 125 variables (initial values), 120 windows (forms), 18
type declaration (VBA), 120 variant data type (VBA), 120 With-End (VBA), 123
types of data. See data type VarType (VBA), 130 Wizard
vbKey . . . (VBA), 97 - form, 31
U view (of form) - lookup, 14
UBound (array bound, VBA), - datasheet advantages, 38
128 - form view advantages, 38 Y
Ucase function (VBA), 128 - shortcut keys for changing, 22 yes/no field, 11
unbound controls, 20, 40 Visual Basic, 68–115, 116–34
undo data entry, 8 - breakpoints, 82
154 Index

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Microsoft-Access Tutorial

Version 2.4a: August 2007

Version 1: October 2004.

Version 2.1: November 2004. Changes:

Version 2.2: April 2004. Changes:

Version 2.3: September 2006. Changes:

Version 2.4: August 2007. Changes:

© Soren Lauesen, 2007

tblStay tblServiceReceived tblServiceType

4 1. The hotel system

1. The hotel system 5

2.1 Create a database in Access

Fig 2.1A The Access database window

One Access database = one file.

Use the table.

The database window:

Table name. Access asks for it the

One line Possible

AutoNumber: You get

Edit Esc to undo.

Fig 2.2 Create remaining tables

Note that you cannot see in the relationship window

Deleting a relationship. If you need to delete a rela-

Right-click in database window.

Choose tables to show Right-click in ER diagram.

AutoNumber: You get

Table in design mode:

What to store The values the

User may enter

Route routeID, mon, tue, Route: AA331. Mon, Wed

Right-click -> Show table.

Two relationships between City Relationship between Leg and

3.1 Forms and simple controls

18 3. Access-based user interfaces

Property box for

Set grid size to

3. Access-based user interfaces 19

20 3. Access-based user interfaces

Navigation Underline letter for

3. Access-based user interfaces 21

22 3. Access-based user interfaces

Select view mode:

3. Access-based user interfaces 23

24 3. Access-based user interfaces

3. Access-based user interfaces 25

26 3. Access-based user interfaces

3. Access-based user interfaces 27

28 3. Access-based user interfaces

Date, number, Yes/No . . .

For large text fields

Position and size

How data is computed

Can have focus

User can enter data

Field sequence when the

3. Access-based user interfaces 29

Fig 3.2A Main form and Subform

A continuous form in Form view A continuous form in Datasheet view

30 3. Access-based user interfaces

Fig 3.2B Create the continuous form