Mike Wolfe - No Longer Set (Page 27)

Week in Review: December 31, 2022

Highlights include a deep dive into creating a customer follow-up database, automatic form resizing, and a risk-minimizing approach to app rewrites.

VBA

Avoiding the "Invalid in Immediate Pane" Error

Sometimes, using the colon character to combine statements in the immediate window results in an "Invalid in immediate pane" error. Here's why and how to fix it.

Code Library

Converting VBA Long Color Values to RGB

The VBA RGB() function converts red, green, and blue values into a VBA long integer color value. This simple function works in the other direction.

Tools

Using FreeMind as a Schema Development Tool

In the early stages of planning a database design, I prefer a tool that lets me capture my thoughts as they flow without getting in the way. FreeMind is that tool.

Basic

The Single Most Important Concept for Understanding Relational Databases

If you're coming to the database world from the spreadsheet world, this one key concept will help you make the necessary mindset shift.

twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: December 26, 2022

Highlights include the smallest bug report in twinBASIC history, a repository of twinBASIC sample projects, and a tB-based VBA DocTest runner from Ben Clothier.

Holiday

Merry Christmas

"...She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Week in Review

Week in Review: December 24, 2022

Highlights include tentative dates for Access DevCon Vienna, the evils of split forms, listing complex fields, and more festive Access art from Crystal Long.

Reader Challenge

Calculating Gift Counts for "The Twelve Days of Christmas": Recursion Edition

In the second solution to my recent reader challenge, I use recursion to calculate the cumulative number of gifts given for each day of the "12 Days of Christmas."

Reader Challenge

Calculating Gift Counts for "The Twelve Days of Christmas": Looping Edition

In the first solution to my recent reader challenge, I use a loop to calculate the cumulative number of gifts given for each day of the "12 Days of Christmas."

Reader Challenge

Reader Challenge: Write a Formula to Calculate Gift Totals in "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

How many total gifts does one's true love deliver by the nth day of Christmas? It's a deceptively tricky problem to solve.

Code Library

Dt() Function v3: Refactoring with Automated Tests

Reader Brenda Bachtold provides a more readable version of my date-wrapping function. Automated doc tests prove that her version functions the same as mine.

Code Library

Dt() Function v2: Handling Time-Only Date Values

An important bug fix for my previously published date-wrapping VBA function that addresses an issue integrating time-only values with SQL Server.

twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: December 18, 2022

Highlights include initial support for user controls, a new list view option for the form designer toolbox, and another sample twinBASIC project from fafalone.

Week in Review

Week in Review: December 17, 2022

Highlights include Access's new code signing feature, rotating and scaling images, drawing snowflakes (festive!), and a BRAND NEW Access blog.

SQL Server

Epoch Differences Between VBA and SQL Server

Do you have unexplained dates of December 30, 1899 in your SQL Server database? VBA's epoch (i.e., zero date) could be the culprit.

Database Design

Sample Database Schemas for the Database Design Phase

The most important phase of any Microsoft Access application project is the database design. This site has tons of sample schemas to get you started.

Code Library

GetLatestOledbProvider(): Use VBA to get the Latest SQL Server OLE DB Provider

This simple VBA function will check the user's registry and return the latest OLE DB provider from a list of supported providers that you can customize.

Hidden Features

Dark Mode in VBA

VBA may not have a preset "Dark Mode" like other modern development environments, but it's not hard to create one yourself.

Code Library

GetLatestOdbcDriver(): Use VBA to get the Latest SQL Server ODBC Driver

This simple VBA function will check the user's registry and return the latest ODBC driver from a list of supported drivers that you can customize.

twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: December 11, 2022

Updates include a version 1 release date, twinBASIC roadmap update, and several bug fixes.

Week in Review

Week in Review: December 10, 2022

Highlights include Access disappearing from the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, bug fix release 2211 details, maps, maps, and more maps.

List Fields

ListFields() Part 3: Field Details

In part 3, we add an optional parameter to the ListFields() function to display the field details in the immediate window.

Database Design

Reader Q&A: Single-Row Tables

Are single-row tables something you should use or not? Can they be trusted? I answer that and more in this installment of Reader Q&A.

List Fields

ListFields() Part 2: An Optional Prefix

The ListFields() routine expands to include optional table/alias prefixes for outputting fully qualified field names.