I'm designing a data table in Access. I have two columns whose values are something like:
col1: CU001-
col2: 03
and i want to join these two string to form another column's default value like: CU001-03
How can i do this?
And one more question is whether using a string as main key tends to be much slower than a numeric?
I’m fairly sure (but open to correction) that you cant have this kind of thing in access using the default value however you can get the same effect by doing something like this.
If you have an unbound form then you can set the value of your 3rd column before you save it like this presto code
With rst
!YourCol1=”foo”
!YourCol2=”bar”
!YourCol3= !YourCol1 & !YourCol2
.Update
End with
Search on “unbound forms” on google to see full examples of unbound forms, also if you are only using JET to store your data then use DAO over ADO as it will be faster
EDIT
I have not read any books specifically on access but I can strongly recommend a few access websites that have helped me. Here they are in no particular order
http://www.mvps.org/access/
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/
http://www.lebans.com/
http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
There are many more out there but they are a good place to start
Related
Forgive me if this has already been asked- I can’t seem to find a well written answer.
I am developing a small application for personal use.
Essentially what I have is two forms. Form 1 is a master view of all my contacts listed on a data grid view. Form 2 will be loaded on the cell/row double click of a particular record in order to edit it’s details.
My question is, what is the best practice/method for achieving this? I have seen many different methods.
Should I:
Pass only the primary key of the selected row then populate the fields on form 2 load
Pass all fields as a variable within a class then populate form 2 from that
Maybe I’m headed in the complete wrong direction though.
I have tried both ways, but wondering what the best method is for scalability.
My personal preference would be to pass a datarow into the opening argument of the form (rather than the PK / all the variables). You can then use the datarow inside your Form2 to bind to your controls or set their values, whichever you think is appropriate.
There are some useful examples on working with a datarow if you're unsure, alternatively you can also check out Microsoft Docs.
Public Sub New(ByVal row As DataRow)
InitializeComponent()
' your code for working with row here
End Sub
Edit:
In terms of "Binding" vs "Setting", you can either have your controls linked to your data to be two way (as you edit the data in a control at run time you alter the data in your database) or you can just set the values of the controls.
E.G. TextBox1.Text = row(0)("ColumnName")
You can find more on data binding on the Microsoft Docs page
I am currently experimenting with Microsoft Access and was curious how one would accomplish this.
I know that one can add a prefix to an autonumber in the format option such as "EMP"000, and each autonumber would fill as EMP001, EMP002, and so on.
What I would like to do is have the "EMP" change dynamically so if my personnel table has them as a Manager for example, it would be listed as MGR003, MGR004, etc.
My thought was to have something like the following in the format section but again am still new to indepth access so please excuse my crude write up.
"SELECT FROM [PersonnelTable].[PersonnelAbbreviation] if [Add Task].[AddTaskPersonnelType]==[PersonnelTable].[PersonnelType];"000
So to recap, I have two tables one "Add Task" the other "Personnel". Would like prefix on Add Task AutoNumber to be based off the abbreviation I have in table Personnel.
Thank you Stack Overflow users!
Simply use a query (air code)
SELECT anydesiredfields, PersonellTable.PersonellType & Format(PersonellTable.PersonellID, "000") as FormattedID
FROM PersonellTable
INNER JOIN AddTask ON PersonellTable.PersonellID = AddTask.PersonellID
I need to automatically generate a 12 character value for my Business Key. Without any user interaction.
8 character -> Today Date (yyyymmdd or ddmmyyyy).
+
4 character -> Sequential Number (0001,0002,0003).
The Sequential Number must reset on each new day.
Is it possible to do this in Microsoft Access 2010+ without any coding involved?
Since you are using Access 2010+ the best way to accomplish your goal would be to use a Before Change data macro like this
To create the Before Change macro, click the "Before Change" button on the "Table" tab of the ribbon when the table is open in Datasheet View:
For more details on Data Macros see
Create a data macro
Good question, thanks for the challenge!
After some search, it seems it's possible to do that.
You can prefix the AutoNuber value by processing like the explanation available here: http://www.databasedev.co.uk/add_prefix.html
You can try to specify in the format of the field a format(now(),"ddmmyyyy").
Check this page for more informations, another user seems to have the same problem and got a solution: http://bytes.com/topic/access/answers/695188-custom-made-autonumber-show-todays-date
Hope it's helping you!
The 1,500 page Access 97 Bible (don't laugh!) that I've been given by my boss to solve his problem doesn't solve my problem of how to solve his problem, because it has nee VBA code.
Let me first make clear that I've made attempts to solve this without (much) coding, and that I've coded quite a bit in VBA already, so I'm basically familiar with most things including recordsets, queries, etc etc but have problems with MS Access limits on how to form a report with data coming from VBA variables. I'm also versatile in most programming languages, but this is not a language problem but rather a "how to/what's possible" problem.
My problem right now is that dragging the query fields into the Detail subform and putting them into cells in columns setting Left and Top with VBA code are moving them alright, but each cell is on a new page. Unfortunately, there is multiple data in each cell that won't conform to the Create Report Guide options available.
So my question is simply this: Can someone point me to working examples of code that create, place, and fill with VBA variable strings, text fields at any coordinate I please on a paper size of my choice?
Edit: The above is not an option, as I understand this will prohibit the client from getting an .mde database. What remains, then, is to merely ask for some sound advice on how to get several rows GROUPed BY weekday and machine (see below) into a recordset or similar for each cell. I guess the best way is to count the number of columns in the table (machines in the sql result) and create 5 rows of these with dummy data, then go through the result rows and place the data in the relevant controls. But if you have ideas for doing this work better and faster, write them as answers.
Sorry for this, I knew there was something I wasn't understanding. Basically, I thought Access supported creating reports dynamically via VBA, ie. "generating pages with data" rather than "preparing a flow of controls connected to datasources". But Access requires that you create an ample amount of dummy, unlinked controls manually, then either fill or hide them and that's how they become "dynamic".
This is for Access 2003 on a remote server accessing local and remote ODBC SQL database tables, if relevant. The goal is to make a week schedule of n columns (n=number of machines at a certain plant) x 5 rows (weekday Mon-Fri), and put 1 or more recordset rows (=scheduled activities for that day on that machine) in each of the "n by 5 table" cells.
If you detect venting frustration in this post I can only ask your forgiveness and hope for your understanding.
So, has many techniques for this:
Ex: 1) using dinamic sql for this:
'Create a function to make sql query
Function MakeMySQlReport(Parameters):
Dim strSql as string
Dim strMyVar as string
strsql = vbnullstring
strsql = "Select " & myVar1 & " as MyFieldVar1, * from myTable where Fieldx =" & Parameters
MyReport.recordSource = ssql
End Function
Ex: 2) create function that returns yours strings:
Function MyString1() as string
MyString1 = 'ABC'
end Function
An in your report, select the textbox will receive the value and type =MyString1()]
I hope this help to you, need more examples?
Solution:
Create many objects manually (grr!)
name them systematically
put them in a Control Array (get all Me.Controls, sift out the ones you're interested in, and put them in an indexed array)
go through the array and change their properties
Ok so I hope the title of the question matches what I about to ask, but here is what I am trying to get at:
So I have an access database that uses a number of unbound forms, and the purpose of the forms are to collect data and save to various tables with VBA click events using SQL statements (INSERT or UPDATE based on whether the ID of the record is present on the form in a hidden text box). When entering a new record (via INSERT), I get the row number with
MyRow = db.openrecordset("SELECT ##Identity")(0) 'thanks David
So you maybe getting the picture. If I have another form that relates to the first form in terms of the record, I just open a recordset and pass that value to another hidden text box.
So my question is, is there a better way to do this regarding passing that value (or just using that value) using a variable instead of this awkward method. So I realize a lot of folks are going to go with the obvious answer of, "Why not just make your forms bound instead of all this code"...and I am sure that is a valid answer, however I inherited this database which was already put together like this, and re-structuring it would be a daunting task.
Any and all advice, or learning resources are greatly appreciated, as they always are!
I use unbound controls on forms for all these kinds of values. The current solution of using an unbound form is sounder than using global or form level variables. If I recall the details correctly while debugging code and you hit the stop button you lose all global or form level variables. Or if the user hits an unhandled error.
Have you looked at OpenArgs?
DoCmd.OpenForm "Form1", , , , , , "Hello"