Advanced - No Longer Set (Page 3)

Lazy Loading Combo Boxes

Don't load tens of thousands of records into a combo box. Instead, wait for the user to start typing, and then load only what they need.

Combo Boxes

Multi-Column Progressive Combo Box Filtering

You, too, can learn to filter your combo boxes by every visible column.

Events

The ArrowKeyNav Journey

A full breakdown of my weArrowKeyNav class module that uses WithEvents to override the default up and down arrow key behavior in continuous Access forms.

Advanced

Approximate String Matching Workshop

Access wizard Alessandro Grimaldi is offering a paid workshop where he will teach how to implement the Levenshtein Distance algorithm in Access.

Advanced

VarType in VBA

The VarType function lets you determine the underlying type of a variable. How does it fit in with TypeName and TypeOf?

Advanced

TypeName vs. TypeOf

You can check the type of a variable in VBA using TypeName or TypeOf. But do you know when to use which? And why? Let's explore.

Events

Many Objects, One Class Module

Check out this trick for reducing boilerplate code: maintain a private collection of objects that are instances of the class itself.

Advanced

Handling Multiple Control Types in a WithEvents Class

Using WithEvents to subclass form controls is a powerful technique. Here's one way to handle multiple control types in a single class.

Advanced

Using WithEvents to Encapsulate Event Handling Code

You don't need to call the event handler for every control to handle its events. Instead, you can use WithEvents to encapsulate that code in a class module.

Advanced

Raising Custom Events in VBA

This quick tutorial will have you writing custom events in VBA in no time.

Basic

The DRY Journey

Don't Repeat Yourself. It's the programmer's mantra. But how do you achieve it in VBA?

Advanced

The Tradeoffs of ByRef and ByVal

As they say, there is no free lunch. Passing by value or by reference is the sort of distinction you can mostly ignore...until one day you can't.

Code Library

Strongly-Typed Collections: The Easy Way

Creating a strongly-typed collection class in VBA requires jumping through code export-import hoops. What if you didn't have to, though?

Advanced

Strongly Typed Collections in VBA

Get better type safety and access to IntelliSense inside For Each loops by using "strongly-typed collections" in place of the VBA Collection type.

Reports

Future Compatibility

Use this trick to support future functionality while still getting your code to compile in older versions of Access.

Watches

Break When Value Changes

When debugging VBA, you can watch an expression and halt code execution whenever its value changes. Let's explore exactly how that works.

Watches

Break When Value Is True

When debugging VBA, you can watch an expression and halt code execution as soon as it evaluates to True. Let's explore exactly how that works.

Watches

Watch Expression

A deeper than necessary dive into the exact expression evaluation behavior of the basic "Watch Expression" in VBA.

Fluent API

Fluent Interfaces

It's probably irresponsible of me to share the following technique with you because you'll be so tempted to abuse it. But let's do it anyway.

Advanced

Super-Safe Boolean Handling

If you want to be safe when working with Booleans, you need to ensure they're stored as 0 or -1. That's not as easy as you might think.

Advanced

Deceptively Complex Booleans

Why is VBA such an optimistic language? Because there's only one way to say "No," but 65,535 ways to say "Yes."

Advanced

Checklist: The Best Access Applications

Good. Better. BEST. Is your Access application as good as it can be?

Advanced

"Complex" DTOs in VBA

Can you use the OpenArgs parameter to pass multiple values to forms and reports with compile-time checking? You can if you use DTOs.

Code Library

Writing Code with Code in VBA

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

Advanced

VBA Dictionaries: AKA, Hash Tables

This is not an article about Amsterdam flea markets. Hash tables are the data structures upon which Dictionaries are built.