IS NULL: Understanding and Using the Null Value in Microsoft Access

In Microsoft Access, a null value is a value that is not assigned or unknown. When working with databases, it’s important to understand how to use and identify null values in order to ensure accurate and efficient data management. The IS NULL operator is one of the most useful tools for working with null values…

ID vs Code

There are cases where a table’s primary key is referred to often in the code. In fact, it might have some special meanings in code. It is highly encouraged to avoid the use of IDENTITY or AutoNumber (or any auto-incrementing schema) for those keys because it is also usually desirable to create a VBA Enum…

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…

Microsoft Access File Extensions

Microsoft Access saves information under the following file formats: File Format Extension Access Project (2007, 2010) .adp Access Blank Project Template (2007, 2010) .adn Access Database (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016) .accdb Access Record-Locking Information (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016) laccdb Access Web App Reference .accdw Access Signed Packages .accdc Access Database, used for Add-ins .accda Access…

drag and drop in Access

Drag & Drop and Conditional Sorting in Microsoft Access

Drag and Drop In MS Access Doug was on a roll in January of 2004 when he wrote his article on drag and drop in MS Access. He tested it now using Access 2016 and it still works. This article shows you how to add drag-and-drop to your Access application using combinations of multi-value and…

Using Microsoft Access Data in a Mail Merge

Suppose you have an Access Database containing the names and addresses of your customers. Every now and again you may want or need to send a standard letter to each customer who has opted in to such mailings. However, you are aware that these letters are going to look so much better, and work so…

MODULE LEVEL VARIABLES

Module level variables

It is common to create a big wall of declaration in a module such as this: Private strCompanyName As String Private dteOrderDate As Date Private lngOrderID As Long Private objEmail As Object Private objOutlook As Object While the code will compile and work fine, the discoverability and naming of the module level variables does become…

Truthy and Falsy Values

“Truthy” and “Falsy” Values

VBA is quite very loose in what it deems “truthy” and “falsy”. For example, this procedure can produce surprising result: If Me.MyBitField.Value = True Then ‘It is true Else ‘It is false End If At the first glance, it seems expected that if the bit field is set to 1, it would succeed. But in…

new table

Creating a Make Table Query

Before we create the Make Table Query, you might like to create a new blank database file. This is so we have a separate database into which we can paste the new table from the query. In this exercise I have called it HistoricData.accdb. Here is the procedure to create a Make Table Query: Open…

Designing a lookup table with logic

It is very common for us to embed some kind of logic based on a lookup table or in some cases, a column of a table. Because we have application logic connected to it, the code are fragile and subject to changes as the requirements develops. We want to avoid this situation where we might…