Use TryGet pattern for transient values

A number of objects may have extra properties or something where it might not exist for all instances. A good example might be finding Controlsource property on an Access.Control variable:

Not all controls have a ControlSource property and thus can fail to run. A common approach is to use OERN:

This will work…

Access 2003

Microsoft Access 2003 Language Reference [Access 2003 VBA Language Reference]

This reference contains conceptual overviews, programming tasks, samples, and references to guide you in developing solutions based on Microsoft Access. The reference contains the following sections: What’s New: Provides a list of new members by object and in alphabetical order. Concepts: Provides important concepts for developing custom Access solutions. Reference: Provides reference materials for the Access…

Hiding the Navigation Pane with VBA

Once you have created an Access Database Application to be used by other people, it may well be important for you to prevent users from gaining access to any of its design features. By this I mean, you may not want users to modify your tables, forms and queries etc in design view (inadvertently or…

Using Custom Functions in Calculated Controls

Custom functions work the same way as MS Access built-in functions such as DateAdd, DatePart and DSum, but are instead created ourselves as database developers.  We do this by creating a public function with the VBA programming language and save it inside a global module within the database. Today I am going to explain how custom functions can be…

“Too Few Parameters” error fix

Symptoms Whenever you run a SQL statement you get a “Too Few Parameters, expected X.” Cause Most common cause is misspelling or missing fields in the SQL statement. Resolution Check the SQL statement. If necessary, copy and paste to an Access query and test in the query to get it to highlight which part of…

Access InStr() function to SQL Server equivalent

What is the SQL Server equivalent to Access InStr() function? TargetField: String expression being searched SearchValue: String expression being sought StartPosition: Starting position for each search (optional) Access SQL InStr(TargetField, SearchValue) InStr(StartPosition, TargetField, SearchValue) SQL Server CHARINDEX(SearchValue, TargetField) CHARINDEX(SearchValue, TargetField, StartPosition)

#LateBind Constant

In standard code, we make use of #LateBind conditional compilation constant, which is typically defined via project’s Conditional Compilation Argument in the dialog: NOTE: The dialog can be found via Tools → <project name> Properties, which is located below the Options menu item. The menu item caption will be different as it includes the project…

Self-documenting code

Strong preference should be given to writing code that is self-documenting. A common approach is to write a lot of comments, but the problem with comments are twofold: It actually can harm the readability because it adds to the overall length of code to read and understand. It must be correct or it can end…

Unrecognized Database Format

Access 2010: Unrecognized Database Format

I’ve been seeing more and more people having problems with the Unrecognized Database Format when creating or modifying an Access 2007 (accdb) format database in Access 2010 and then trying to open it again in Access 2007. The issue appears to be that Access 2010 does not have its own file format. When you add a…