How to reference control names dynamically in MS Access - ms-access

Question

I have the following code in an MS Access Form object.
Private Sub UpdatePMText(sLang As String)
'Used to pass both Mandate and Language Info to called Sub that will execute the queries
Dim iMandate As Integer
'Check if there is text in the box.
If Me.Controls("txtInput_PM_" & sLang & "_DRAFT") = Null Or Me.Controls("txtInput_PM_" & sLang & "_DRAFT") = "" Then
MsgBox ("There is no text in the " & sLang & " DRAFT Field." & vbNewLine & "The operation will not be executed.")
Exit Sub
End If
iMandate = Me.txtMandateID
Call modUpdateText.macro_PMText(iMandate, sLang)
End Sub
If I refer to the Controls directly and simply type out the names of the forms, for example txtInput_PM_EN_DRAFT then the code works as intended.
The error message I get is that Access can't find the "Field" I'm referring to when I am on the first IF statement line. I have tried changing the .Controls to .Fields but that didn't work either.
I do not want to repeat the same code for every language I need to run. How do I reference control names dynamically in MS Access? What am I missing?

Answer 1

I think you need to add some basic troubleshooting. The answer is probably simpler than you think. It's likely you're just trying to lookup a textbox with mispelled name or it's failing on the Null comparison (as suggested by #HansUp)
I would try modifying your basic sub and testing it with this subroutine. As long as your code is in your current form and you're not referencing a subform your method will work.
Private Sub UpdatePMText(sLang As String)
Const ERR_MISSING_CONTROL As Long = 2465
On Error GoTo Err_UpdatePMText
Dim sTextBox As String
sTextBox = "txtInput_PM_" & sLang & "_DRAFT"
'Check if there is text in the box.
If Nz(Me.Controls(sTextBox).Value, "") = "" Then
MsgBox ("There is no text in the " & sLang & " DRAFT Field." & vbNewLine & "The operation will not be executed.")
Exit Sub
End If
Exit Sub
Err_UpdatePMText:
If Err.Number = ERR_MISSING_CONTROL Then
MsgBox "Error: No Such Textbox: " & sTextBox
Else
MsgBox "Error Looking Up Textbox: """ & sTextBox & """" & vbCrLf & Err.Description
End If
End Sub