Minimizing stateful code

First we need to define what a state is. A state means that the object has variable(s) that may cause it to behave differently, depending on the content of the variables. As an example, the Forms collection is stateful:

This is legal code and will compile but we can’t be assured that this 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…

switchboard

How to Display a Form Automatically when your Application Opens

This is a quick tip on how to automatically display a form when the user opens your Access Application. In addition to improving User Friendliness, your database design will also appear much more professional. The step by step instructions below will display the Switchboard form in figure 1 immediately upon the application opening. This will…

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…

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 NZ() function to SQL Server equivalent

What is the SQL Server equivalent to Access NZ() function? Access SQL NZ([Event Timestamp]) SQL Server Equivalent COALESCE([Event Timestamp],0) ISNULL([Event Timestamp],0) * do not confuse this with the Access isnull() function.

Use controls, not fields

Sometimes we need to use fields from a RecordSource that aren’t shown on the form. It is legal to reference them directly even if they don’t have a control. For example, we can have a form bound to a RecordSource like so:

And only display CompanyName in a textbox but not show the CompanyID….

“Too Few Parameters” error fix

Symptoms Whenever you run a SQL statement you get a “Too Few Parameters, expected X.” Cause Most common cause is misspelling or missing fields in the SQL statement. Resolution Check the SQL statement. If necessary, copy and paste to an Access query and test in the query to get it to highlight which part of…

Self-documenting code

Strong preference should be given to writing code that is self-documenting. A common approach is to write a lot of comments, but the problem with comments are twofold: It actually can harm the readability because it adds to the overall length of code to read and understand. It must be correct or it can end…

#LateBind Constant

In standard code, we make use of #LateBind conditional compilation constant, which is typically defined via project’s Conditional Compilation Argument in the dialog: NOTE: The dialog can be found via Tools → <project name> Properties, which is located below the Options menu item. The menu item caption will be different as it includes the project…