Basic - No Longer Set (Page 2)

Basic

Beware the BETWEEN

Using the BETWEEN clause with date-time fields may lead to unexpected results. There's a safer alternative.

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The Difference Between Good and Bad Code Comments

The difference between good and bad comments explained in under 25 words.

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How to Customize the Access Ribbon on a Developer Machine

This step-by-step guide shows you how to customize the Microsoft Access ribbon and add missing commands.

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What the Vancouver Stock Exchange Can Teach Us About Rounding Numbers in VBA

So you think you know how to round decimals. Do you, though? There may be more to it than you think.

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How to Pause Your VBA Code For a Set Amount of Time

There is no built-in function to pause code in VBA. The easiest and safest way to do it is to use the Sleep API function. Here's a quick how-to.

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Avoid DoCmd.RunSQL in Microsoft Access

If you are just starting out writing VBA in Microsoft Access, you may be tempted to use DoCmd.RunSQL. Don't. There is a better way.

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Poor Man's Status Bar in VBA

If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to keep track of a long-running process while developing, this VBA one-liner will do the trick.

DoEvents

When (or Should I Say, How Often) to Call DoEvents

Too few calls to DoEvents, and your app may appear to be "(Not Responding)." Too many calls to DoEvents, and your app will run slow. Let's Goldilocks this thing.

DoEvents

How to Use the DoEvents Function: A Demonstration

The demonstration and downloadable sample code in this article make it easy to understand how DoEvents works.

DoEvents

How to Teach a Six-Year Old About the DoEvents Function

I challenge you to read this article without laughing or learning anything new about the DoEvents function.

Basic

Split Your Microsoft Access Applications...Or Else

"Ghostbusters" has some important lessons to teach us about Access application development.

Basic

Anatomy of a CRUD App

Microsoft Access is a great platform for developing desktop CRUD apps. But what the heck is a CRUD app?

Commentary

The Two Keys to Building Great Access Applications

The best Access applications prioritize data discovery and efficiency.

Basic

Combo Box: Behavior Deep Dive

Join me as I take you on an animated gif guided tour of the default behavior of the Microsoft Access combo box, with emphasis on the autocomplete feature.

Basic

Field Comments on Linked Tables

In this 6-part series, I cover everything you need to know about field descriptions for linked tables with Access and SQL Server back-end databases.

Basic

Easy Access to Field Descriptions

The ExtractFieldComments() function returns a dictionary of field names and their descriptions from a TableDef object.

Basic

Field Comments on Linked Access Tables

In part 1 of this series on field comments, we discuss maintaining column descriptions on tables linked to MS Access back-end files.

Basic

KeyCode and Shift Arguments

The KeyDown and KeyUp events include KeyCode and Shift arguments to identify which keys the user pressed. Let's explore those arguments in more detail.

Basic

Handling Keyboard Events in Access

This beginner article will step you through the process of how to begin writing code that runs when a user presses a key on the keyboard.

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Navigating Continuous Forms

If Up is left and Down is right, you must be navigating a continuous form in Microsoft Access.

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Event-Driven Programming in VBA

Event-driven programming may sound complicated, but the concept is really quite simple.

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The DRY Journey

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

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Looping Through a List of Items

Here's a quick and dirty way to loop through a list of items in VBA.

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Watching and Waiting

Careful what you watch for! Monitoring changes to a slow expression can grind your debug session to a halt.

Basic

The Extra Resume

Want an easy way to jump to the line that raised the error AND avoid the infinite loop time bomb? Add an extra Resume.