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…
“Truthy” and “Falsy” Values
VBA is quite very loose in what it deems “truthy” and “falsy”. For example, this procedure can produce surprising result:
|
1 2 3 4 5 |
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 fact, it wouldn’t because True is equivalent to -1, not 1. Unless we…
Prefer compile time errors over run time errors
In VBA, there are several features that allow us to do things that may not be checked at the compile time. In particular, it is possible to write several late-bound expressions which means that it can potentially contain run-time errors. One common misconception about late-binding is that it’s a matter of adding a reference and…
Use controls, not fields
Sometimes we need to use fields from a RecordSource that aren’t shown on the form. It is legal to reference them directly even if they don’t have a control. For example, we can have a form bound to a RecordSource like so:
|
1 2 3 4 |
SELECT c.CompanyID, c.CompanyName FROM Companies; |
And only display CompanyName in a textbox but not show the CompanyID….
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…
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…
How to Display a Form Automatically when your Application Opens
This is a quick tip on how to automatically display a form when the user opens your Access Application. In addition to improving User Friendliness, your database design will also appear much more professional. The step by step instructions below will display the Switchboard form in figure 1 immediately upon the application opening. This will…
Access Web Apps to be retired
It was announced that Access Services is going to be retired. Details of the announcement may be found here: Updating the Access Services in SharePoint Roadmap. Additional timeline information along with possible methods for exporting your data out of an Access web app may be found here: Access web apps no longer supported. While these articles…
Access DateValue() function to SQL Server equivalent
What is the SQL Server equivalent to Access DateValue() function? Access SQL DateValue([Event Timestamp]) SQL Server Equivalent cast([Event Timestamp] as date) convert(date, [Event Timestamp])
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…









