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…
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…
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…
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…
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)
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…
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: For Each ctl In Me.Controls Debug.Print ctl.ControlSource ‘A potential error Next Not all controls have a ControlSource property and thus can fail to run. A…
“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…
Access 2003 Technical Articles
In this section of the MSDN Library, you’ll find technical articles that demonstrate how to build and deploy complex Access 2003 runtime-based solutions, automate Access from another application; use the new XML features in Access 2003, and even how you can animate Access 2003. You can use the TOC to your left to navigate through…






