Building Your Library
Thirteen years ago, I chose to maintain a folder of text files rather than a single Access database library. I’ve never once regretted that decision.
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The Dependency Train
Let’s torture a train metaphor to illustrate the dangers of dependency chaining.
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Creating Optional Dependencies
Using conditional compilation to avoid the “Dependency Train” problem.
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Code Library Updates
Q: How do you manage updates to code library modules?
A: Version control and backward compatibility zealotry.
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clsApp
VBA Alchemy: Turning Methods Into Properties
One can check the status of screen painting in Excel, but not in Access. This turns out to be an important shortcoming. Let’s remedy it.
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Environmentally Friendly Access
Using the Windows Registry to manage Production, Development, and Testing environments in #VBA and #MSAccess.
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clsStatus
Don’t Settle for the “Status” Quo
Wherein I wrap Access’s built-in status bar functions inside a class module for more readable code.
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String Functions
Quoth thy SQL? Evermore!
Solving the “O’Malley problem” with dedicated functions to sanitize our strings. Little Bobby Tables would be proud.
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Come Together
Do you build strings in loops? Stop trimming the delimiter at the end of the loop. There’s a better way.
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Part and Parse()-l
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.
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Design Procedures
One Thing at a (Hundred) Times
How to use Run() and GetTickCount() for some quick and dirty performance profiling. Come for the code, stay for the scolding on premature optimization.
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Listing External Table Sources
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.
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Form Functions
My Dirty Little Secret
I don’t use Me.Dirty = False in my #msaccess code. I wrap it up and call it from a “guard clause” instead.
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Filling in the Blanks
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.
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Why so lazy, Access?
Introducing FormIsOpen() and ReportIsOpen(), two simple functions to help deal with Access’s laziness.
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Image by izoca from Pixabay of the beautiful Klemintinum library in Prague. If you ever visit, remember the rules: "No talking, no running, and absolutely no defenestrating." It's been an issue.
