Environmentally Friendly Access: (Nov 5, 2020) Using the Windows Registry to manage Production, Development, and Testing environments in #VBA and #MSAccess.

The Global Form: (Jan 25, 2021) Storing global variables on a hidden form has some distinct advantages over storing them in VBA.

RegOp Class for 64-bit VBA: (Feb 17, 2021) Updating a classic VBA registry reading and writing class module for 64-bit compatibility.

RegOp Quick Tip: (Feb 18, 2021) Be respectful of your user's registry. Store all your applications' settings in a dedicated publisher subkey.

Don't Settle for the "Status" Quo: (Nov 6, 2020) Wherein I wrap Access's built-in status bar functions inside a class module for more readable code.

Strongly-Typed Collections: The Easy Way: (Mar 27, 2021) Creating a strongly-typed collection class in VBA requires jumping through code export-import hoops. What if you didn't have to, though?

"Convenience" Date Functions: (Nov 24, 2020) The DateSerial function is easy to write, but it's not as easy to read. Let's make our code easier to read with some "convenience functions."

Federal Holidays in VBA: (Feb 1, 2021) How do you calculate US federal holiday observances in VBA? One option is to use brute force and skip the calculation altogether.

VBA IsBusinessDay() Function: (Feb 2, 2021) A simple function that returns True except for weekends and US federal holidays.

IsLastBusinessDayOfMonth() Function: (Feb 3, 2021) I bet you can't guess what this function does.

Counting Weekdays in VBA: (Feb 4, 2021) This otherwise mundane function is made a bit more interesting through its use of the little-known VBA backslash operator, which performs integer division.

Counting Business Days in VBA: (Feb 5, 2021) Counting business days is easy with the WeekDayCount() and FedHolidays() functions. What's interesting is how we test the WorkingDayCount() function.

Using TDD to Calculate Holidays in VBA: (Feb 6, 2021) This article takes you step-by-step through the Test Driven Design process, unencumbered by the complexity of any sort of testing framework.

Sticky Wicket: Looping by Month: (Feb 20, 2021) Some programming problems are difficult to solve. Others are difficult to solve clearly.

Looping by Month: DateSerial: (Feb 21, 2021) The first approach to looping by month uses only the builtin VBA functions DateSerial() and DateDiff().

Looping by Month: Custom Functions: (Feb 22, 2021) By using a couple of custom functions, we can write very readable loops that iterate one month at a time.

Looping by Month: Lookup Table: (Feb 24, 2021) Have I ever used this method? No. Can I imagine a situation where it could be useful? Maybe. Should I write an article about it? Sure, why not.

Creating a Monthly Lookup Table: (Feb 23, 2021) Having a table where each record represents a single month can come in quite handy. Let's create such a table.

Looping by Month: Loop Until with DateAdd: (Feb 25, 2021) Reader Francesco Foti writes in with his own solution to the Looping by Month challenge.

Python-inspired Doc Tests in VBA: (Sep 21, 2020) Doc tests are not a replacement for unit or integration testing. But they do provide the best return on investment (ROI) of any type of test, mostly because the effort to write them is near zero.

Writing Code with Code in VBA: (Dec 10, 2020) Can you write code with code in VBA? Yes. Should you write code wit--OH, BE QUIET YOU!!! Where's your sense of adventure? ;-)

"Complex" DTOs in VBA: (Dec 14, 2020) Can you use the OpenArgs parameter to pass multiple values to forms and reports with compile-time checking? You can if you use DTOs.

Watch This!: (Mar 4, 2021) Did you ever want to set a breakpoint inside of an executing query? How about inside a form event property? This trick lets you do it.

Listing External Table Sources: (Nov 9, 2020) Using the Parse() function to list linked tables by source. Use this when you want to refer to Linked Table Manager info while writing code.

Recursion Demystified: Creating Subfolders: (Nov 29, 2020) Recursion: it's not just for calculating factorials any more! A practical example of using recursion to create multiple missing subfolders.

The Subtle Dangers of Dir(): (Dec 1, 2020) If Len(Dir(FullPath)) > 0 Then 'the file exists. This potential bug patiently waits to pounce and ruin another poor programmer's day.

Kill Failed? Let User Try Again: (Dec 2, 2020) My Access applications regularly need to overwrite existing files.  A common example is exporting data to a text file, such as a .csv.  Sometimes the user chooses to overwrite the existing file, and sometimes the program is hard-coded to save to a specific filename. Oftentimes, the user wants to immediately

Text Files: Read, Write, Append: (Dec 4, 2020) There is beauty in simplicity. These three functions for reading, writing, and appending text files are simple, but effective.

Unicode-Safe Filtered Filename Lookups: (Dec 23, 2020) Need a Unicode-safe way to retrieve a list of filenames from a folder? And its subfolders? And filtered by filename? It's all here!

Joining Paths in VBA: (Feb 11, 2021) How many times have you gotten a runtime error because you had duplicate or missing backslashes in your file paths? Never again!

Finding the Temporary Folder with VBA: (Mar 23, 2021) Be a good steward of your users' file system. If you are creating temporary files, be sure to create them in the designated temporary folder.

Getting a Temporary File Name with VBA: (Mar 24, 2021) Here is a simple function to generate an unused temporary file name in VBA.

My Dirty Little Secret: (Nov 2, 2020) I don't use Me.Dirty = False in my #msaccess code. I wrap it up and call it from a "guard clause" instead.

Filling in the Blanks: (Nov 3, 2020) One of the keys to being a good developer is to make the *easy way* also be the *right way*. Exhibit A: the ControlIsBlank() function.

Why so lazy, Access?: (Nov 4, 2020) Introducing FormIsOpen() and ReportIsOpen(), two simple functions to help deal with Access's laziness.

Clearing a List Box in Access: (Dec 21, 2020) Sometimes you need to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Here's a simple function to do just that for an Access list box.

Unicode-Friendly MsgBox: (Dec 24, 2020) There's a great big world outside of the ANSI bubble. Make every MsgBox in your program Unicode-safe in no time at all with this drop-in replacement.

Setting MultiSelect At Runtime: (Jan 14, 2021) You can't actually set a list box's MultiSelect property at runtime. But there are a few ways to work around the limitation. Let's explore them.

PreviewReport Function: (Mar 16, 2021) This custom function is the simplest and safest way to preview reports in any Microsoft Access application.

The ArrowKeyNav Routine: (May 1, 2021) Enable Excel-like navigation in your continuous forms by overriding the default behavior of the up and down arrow keys.

ComboBox Dropped Down State: (May 10, 2021) Overriding the up/down arrow key behavior improves the user experience on a continuous Access form. But what if the user drops down a combo box?

Get Form By Control: (May 14, 2021) A VBA function that returns the first form parent of the control you pass to it.

Microsoft Access: Check if Form Object is a Subform: (May 15, 2021) How do you check if the form object is a subform in Access without triggering a runtime error? Hint: this is a trick question.

Get Top Form By Control: (May 17, 2021) A VBA function that returns the topmost form parent of any control you pass to it.

Combo Boxes and Target Sizes: (Jun 7, 2021) Just like in darts, it's easier to hit a larger target when using the mouse. With this in mind, let's make our combo boxes more user-friendly.

Nothing To See Here: (Mar 22, 2021) Introducing InformNoData(), a simple function to improve the user experience when there is no report data to show.

Pushing Field Comments to SQL Server: (Jun 1, 2021) A VBA routine that takes field comments from a front-end linked table and pushes them to the corresponding back-end table in SQL Server.

Quoth thy SQL? Evermore!: (Sep 29, 2020) Solving the "O'Malley problem" with dedicated functions to sanitize our strings. Little Bobby Tables would be proud.

Come Together: (Sep 30, 2020) Do you build strings in loops? Stop trimming the delimiter at the end of the loop. There's a better way.

Part and Parse()-l: (Nov 8, 2020) Take the Tag property and OpenArgs argument to the next level. This function makes it easy to assign and extract multiple values from a single string.

Now you have two problems: (Nov 16, 2020) Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. --Jamie Zawinski

Converting Numbers to Text: (Nov 28, 2020) Need to print business checks directly from Microsoft Access? You'll need a way to convert numbers into text. The NumToString function does just that.

weArrowKeyNav Class: (May 18, 2021) Do you want the up and down arrow keys to move to the previous and next records in a continuous Access form? Here's how to do that with only two lines of code.

The One Function Every VBA Developer Needs in a WithEvents Class: (Jun 15, 2021) Your WithEvents event handlers will only run if you set the event property to "[Event Procedure]." Here's a safe and easy way to do that.

Fun with Form Windows: (Nov 26, 2020) Using my FillAccessWindow function to resize Form and Report objects relative to the amount of available space on the Access canvas.

Get Back Here, Form!: (Nov 27, 2020) What happens if the user resizes their Access window so that our form can't open in its entirety? KeepFormOnCanvas() to the rescue!

Get a Handle on Window State: (Dec 28, 2020) Using the IsZoomed and IsIconic API calls to return the window state (minimized, maximized, or restored) of a form, report, or Access itself.