How can I efficiently compare string values from two tables in Access? - ms-access

Question

I have created a VBA function in Access 2010 to compare a list of terms in one table against a list of terms in another table. If the values are alike (not necessarily an exact match), I sum the value from a column from the second table for each match. TableA has approximately 150 terms. TableB has approximately 50,000 terms with a related count (integer).
Example tables:
TableA TableB
--------- ----------
ID ID
Term Term
Count
I have a simple SQL query which calls a VBA function to compare the terms and SUM the count if they have a fuzzy match.
SQL:
SELECT TableA.[Term], TermCheck(TableA.[Term]) AS [Term Count] FROM TableA ORDER BY 2 DESC;
VBA:
Option Compare Database
Public Function TermCheck(Term) As Long
Dim rst As DAO.Recordset
Set rst = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("TableB", dbOpenDynaset)
Dim ttl As Long
ttl = 0
With rst
While Not .EOF
If rst(1) Like "*" & Term & "*" Then
ttl = ttl + rst(2)
End If
.MoveNext
Wend
End With
rst.Close
Set rst = Nothing
CurrentDb.Close
TermCheck = ttl
End Function
The issue I have is that it uses about 50% of my CPU and I'd like to make it as lightweight as possible. Is there a more efficient way to accomplish this task using Access? Moving to a purely SQL alternative is not an option at this point, although it would make me happier. I'm not an Access or VBA guru, but feel that I'm missing something obvious in my query that would improve performance.
EDIT:
The expected result would list out all terms in TableA with a sum of the count column from TableB where a fuzzy match occurred.
Example Data:
TableA
-------------
1 blah
2 foo
3 bar
4 zooba
TableB
-------------
1 blah 16
2 blah2 9
3 foo 7
4 food 3
5 bar 3
Example result:
Term Count
---------------------
blah 25
foo 10
bar 3
zooba 0

Answer 1

SELECT
TableA.Term,
Nz(subq.SumOfCount, 0) AS Count
FROM
TableA
LEFT JOIN
(
SELECT a.Term, Sum(b.Count) AS SumOfCount
FROM TableA AS a, TableB AS b
WHERE b.Term ALike '%' & a.Term & '%'
GROUP BY a.Term
) AS subq
ON TableA.Term = subq.Term;
Edit: I used ALike and standard ANSI wild card character. That allows the query to run correctly regardless of whether it is run from SQL-89 or SQL-92 mode. If you prefer the * wild card, use this version of the WHERE clause:
WHERE b.Term Like '*' & a.Term & '*'
Note that will only do the matching correctly when run from SQL-89 mode.

Answer 2

On these lines?
SELECT ta.ID, tb.Term, ta.Term, tb.Count
FROM ta, tb
WHERE ta.Term Like "*" & tb.term & "*";
ID tb.Term ta.Term Count
2 hat hat 2
3 hat the hat 2
3 the hat the hat 4
4 mat mat 6
5 mat matter 6
5 matter matter 8

Answer 3

I typically build an expression using iif:
TestFlag:iif([TableA]![Term] = [TableB]![Term],"Same","Different")