Normalize all constraints’ & indices’ names

Constraints that are created by SSMA or by user via SSMS tend to have ugly names. Worse, auto-generated names are not stable across backups. Meaning if you restore a new database based on a copy of another database, the constraint names will change. That create huge problems during migrations because scripts that references constraint will…

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…

Enable and Disable a Form Control using VBA

I was working on a design for an Order Management Database, and one of the tasks I dealt with involved dynamically Enabling or Disabling one of the form’s Command Buttons’ using VBA. This gave me the idea for the present Access tip. The command button was located on a Customer Details form which had an Orders…

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…

Access IIf() function to SQL Server equivalent

What is the SQL Server equivalent to Access IIf() function? Access SQL IIf([ResultValue]>=1, [Result Value], Null) SQL Server CASE WHEN [Result Value]>=1 THEN [Result Value] ELSE NULL END

Access Developer Extensions

Access 2007: Access Developer Extensions

The Microsoft Office Access 2007 Developer Extensions make it easy to deploy and manage solutions built using Microsoft Access. The Access 2007 Developer Extensions provide packaging and deployment tools and licensing and distribution agreements to make it easier for developers to bring solutions to market. Whether you are working in a small business or a…

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…

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 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…