Complex query criteria - desperate appeal

I don't know of an easy way to do what you are looking to do in Access. I
think that the earlier advice to build the sql string in code may solve your
problem. It should result in a much simpler sql statement because you won't
need all of the OR conditions for null cases. Instead, the VBA code would
look at each control value and ignore it if it is null, or append the
appropriate SQL string if it is not.

There are many ways that you could approach the VBA code, but I'll show a
few typical lines (you'll need a reference to DAO):

Dim db as DAO.Database
Dim qdf as DAO.QueryDef
Dim strSQL as String
Dim strWhere as String
Dim StrAnd as String

StrWhere = ""
StrAnd = ""

If Nz(Me.Ctrl1,"") "" Then
strWhere = " QueryField1 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl1 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

If Nz(Me.Ctrl2,"") "" Then
strWhere = strAND & " QueryField2 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl2 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

'Go through the rest of the ctrls

StrSQL = "Select ... (Enter Your Base Select Statement)"
StrSQL = strSQL & " WHERE" & strWhere

Set db = CurrentDb
Set qdf = db.QueryDefs("YourQueryName")
qdf.sql = strSQL

set qdf = nothing
set db = nothing

Note though, that you may not be able to change the sql of a query that is
bound to an open subform, so you may have to temporarily change the data
source of the subform to nothing, then change the query, then change the data
source back. I'm not sure, I haven't tried that before.

Also, there are obviously other ways that you could loop through the
controls, and set the criteria, but it would depend somewhat on the data
types and other things. Also, the above assumes that you are adding LIKE
criteria in text fields, you would have to modify these somewhat to give the
exact criteria that you would be looking for.

I think that I have seen some earlier posts with precoded query forms that
would probably have some very good sample code. You may want to do some
google searches of the Access newsgroup to find some if you do go that route.

HTH, Ted Allen

"rgrantz" wrote:

Okay, I've got a pretty big problem here;

I'm trying to get rid of about 45 extra minutes of crap labor for 4 people
at once, as well as cutting down on duplicative data and reporting time.
I'm almost there now, and the 4 people are ecstatic about what's here so
far. However, there is ONE thing missing that I'm having a hard time doing:

This manager I'm making this for has about 13 different criteria he likes to
change and see new data for (customer name, who entered it, what date it was
received, what date range it was entered, what date range it was processed,
who processed it, what machine it was made on, who packaged it, who shipped
it, etc. etc.).
Currently he uses a combination of the Autofilter utility and the
Dcount(Data!...etc.) formula in Excel, which returns data based on any
criteria put in an entire row, which is nice. He can change any criteria
along the entire row, adding some, changing some, deleting others, etc., and
Excel just uses the whole row to continuously dynamically change the records
returned as the criteria change (ie. he enters a particular name for
OrderEnteredBy, and only sees those records, then he enters a name in
OrderShippedBy, and sees only records with BOTH criteria, then he enters
another one, etc. etc.., and when he deletes a criteria, the records reflect
the additional records that no longer have criteria there, but still meet
the OTHER criteria. You get what I'm saying here, right? It's pretty much
being able to stack 13 criteria, with each criteria field also having an
"ALL" (or technically, "NONE", for no criteria) choice in addition to actual
criteria to apply.

I need to do this on a form, and duplicate how the data changes after each
criteria is altered. However, there are too many criteria fields,
apparently, for Access to handle using the query builder. I can use the

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName]

in the criteria cell and

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName] is null

in the "Or" cell of the query builder, and this works great for about 3
fields. He has too many that he wants to see, though, and Access returns
errors about the query being too complex, or the form starts returning
unpredictable results.

It seems very strange to me that Access can continually compound filters on
a form using the "filter menu" for different fields, and that Excel can do
all this with one simple formula, but that I can't get an Access form to do
it.

Someone, please help me, this thing I'm making is PERFECT and has solved 12
big problems, but if the manager can't get this ability to change these
multiple critieria and see the records change as he does so (and be able to
delete criteria as well as change them), then the whole thing's a no go.

All I've been able to think of so far is to make 500 different queries and
run a Select Case on the AfterUpdate of every unbound criteria control,
which cycles through to see which fields are null and which have criteria
and run the corresponding query to refresh the form with. This would be
insane. Someone mentioned using a SQL string and code to change the query
results, rather than using specific queries, but I either don't know how to
do this or the SQL string would be too complex too (don't Access queries
made using the query builder represent SQL strings anyway?)

Someone, please help, I can't help thinking there MUST be a way to do this.
I'm sorry to sound deperate, but the idea of canning this thing and having 4
people spend an extra 45 minutes a day on completely duplicative data, w/
more possibilities for error, less flexibility for reporting, etc., is
driving me crazy. It's not helping the 4 people out either. And everyone's
on board, even this manager, if I can just get this one little gimmicky
thing going.


Thanks for ANY help, I would really appreciate it. I can buy lunch for
anyone who helps me come up w/ a solution.

Okay, I've got a pretty big problem here;

I'm trying to get rid of about 45 extra minutes of crap labor for 4 people
at once, as well as cutting down on duplicative data and reporting time.
I'm almost there now, and the 4 people are ecstatic about what's here so
far. However, there is ONE thing missing that I'm having a hard time doing:

This manager I'm making this for has about 13 different criteria he likes to
change and see new data for (customer name, who entered it, what date it was
received, what date range it was entered, what date range it was processed,
who processed it, what machine it was made on, who packaged it, who shipped
it, etc. etc.).
Currently he uses a combination of the Autofilter utility and the
Dcount(Data!...etc.) formula in Excel, which returns data based on any
criteria put in an entire row, which is nice. He can change any criteria
along the entire row, adding some, changing some, deleting others, etc., and
Excel just uses the whole row to continuously dynamically change the records
returned as the criteria change (ie. he enters a particular name for
OrderEnteredBy, and only sees those records, then he enters a name in
OrderShippedBy, and sees only records with BOTH criteria, then he enters
another one, etc. etc.., and when he deletes a criteria, the records reflect
the additional records that no longer have criteria there, but still meet
the OTHER criteria. You get what I'm saying here, right? It's pretty much
being able to stack 13 criteria, with each criteria field also having an
"ALL" (or technically, "NONE", for no criteria) choice in addition to actual
criteria to apply.

I need to do this on a form, and duplicate how the data changes after each
criteria is altered. However, there are too many criteria fields,
apparently, for Access to handle using the query builder. I can use the

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName]

in the criteria cell and

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName] is null

in the "Or" cell of the query builder, and this works great for about 3
fields. He has too many that he wants to see, though, and Access returns
errors about the query being too complex, or the form starts returning
unpredictable results.

It seems very strange to me that Access can continually compound filters on
a form using the "filter menu" for different fields, and that Excel can do
all this with one simple formula, but that I can't get an Access form to do
it.

Someone, please help me, this thing I'm making is PERFECT and has solved 12
big problems, but if the manager can't get this ability to change these
multiple critieria and see the records change as he does so (and be able to
delete criteria as well as change them), then the whole thing's a no go.

All I've been able to think of so far is to make 500 different queries and
run a Select Case on the AfterUpdate of every unbound criteria control,
which cycles through to see which fields are null and which have criteria
and run the corresponding query to refresh the form with. This would be
insane. Someone mentioned using a SQL string and code to change the query
results, rather than using specific queries, but I either don't know how to
do this or the SQL string would be too complex too (don't Access queries
made using the query builder represent SQL strings anyway?)

Someone, please help, I can't help thinking there MUST be a way to do this.
I'm sorry to sound deperate, but the idea of canning this thing and having 4
people spend an extra 45 minutes a day on completely duplicative data, w/
more possibilities for error, less flexibility for reporting, etc., is
driving me crazy. It's not helping the 4 people out either. And everyone's
on board, even this manager, if I can just get this one little gimmicky
thing going.


Thanks for ANY help, I would really appreciate it. I can buy lunch for
anyone who helps me come up w/ a solution.

P.s. You can find a lot of other code samples and sample applications by
doing a google search. The following will search for query by form:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...ublic.access.*

You can tweak this by also looking for dynamic sql or other key words that
you think may help.

Also, you may want to look at a microsoft KB article at:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=210242

HTH, Ted Allen

"Ted Allen" wrote:

I don't know of an easy way to do what you are looking to do in Access. I
think that the earlier advice to build the sql string in code may solve your
problem. It should result in a much simpler sql statement because you won't
need all of the OR conditions for null cases. Instead, the VBA code would
look at each control value and ignore it if it is null, or append the
appropriate SQL string if it is not.

There are many ways that you could approach the VBA code, but I'll show a
few typical lines (you'll need a reference to DAO):

Dim db as DAO.Database
Dim qdf as DAO.QueryDef
Dim strSQL as String
Dim strWhere as String
Dim StrAnd as String

StrWhere = ""
StrAnd = ""

If Nz(Me.Ctrl1,"") "" Then
strWhere = " QueryField1 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl1 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

If Nz(Me.Ctrl2,"") "" Then
strWhere = strAND & " QueryField2 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl2 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

'Go through the rest of the ctrls

StrSQL = "Select ... (Enter Your Base Select Statement)"
StrSQL = strSQL & " WHERE" & strWhere

Set db = CurrentDb
Set qdf = db.QueryDefs("YourQueryName")
qdf.sql = strSQL

set qdf = nothing
set db = nothing

Note though, that you may not be able to change the sql of a query that is
bound to an open subform, so you may have to temporarily change the data
source of the subform to nothing, then change the query, then change the data
source back. I'm not sure, I haven't tried that before.

Also, there are obviously other ways that you could loop through the
controls, and set the criteria, but it would depend somewhat on the data
types and other things. Also, the above assumes that you are adding LIKE
criteria in text fields, you would have to modify these somewhat to give the
exact criteria that you would be looking for.

I think that I have seen some earlier posts with precoded query forms that
would probably have some very good sample code. You may want to do some
google searches of the Access newsgroup to find some if you do go that route.

HTH, Ted Allen

"rgrantz" wrote:

Okay, I've got a pretty big problem here;

I'm trying to get rid of about 45 extra minutes of crap labor for 4 people
at once, as well as cutting down on duplicative data and reporting time.
I'm almost there now, and the 4 people are ecstatic about what's here so
far. However, there is ONE thing missing that I'm having a hard time doing:

This manager I'm making this for has about 13 different criteria he likes to
change and see new data for (customer name, who entered it, what date it was
received, what date range it was entered, what date range it was processed,
who processed it, what machine it was made on, who packaged it, who shipped
it, etc. etc.).
Currently he uses a combination of the Autofilter utility and the
Dcount(Data!...etc.) formula in Excel, which returns data based on any
criteria put in an entire row, which is nice. He can change any criteria
along the entire row, adding some, changing some, deleting others, etc., and
Excel just uses the whole row to continuously dynamically change the records
returned as the criteria change (ie. he enters a particular name for
OrderEnteredBy, and only sees those records, then he enters a name in
OrderShippedBy, and sees only records with BOTH criteria, then he enters
another one, etc. etc.., and when he deletes a criteria, the records reflect
the additional records that no longer have criteria there, but still meet
the OTHER criteria. You get what I'm saying here, right? It's pretty much
being able to stack 13 criteria, with each criteria field also having an
"ALL" (or technically, "NONE", for no criteria) choice in addition to actual
criteria to apply.

I need to do this on a form, and duplicate how the data changes after each
criteria is altered. However, there are too many criteria fields,
apparently, for Access to handle using the query builder. I can use the

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName]

in the criteria cell and

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName] is null

in the "Or" cell of the query builder, and this works great for about 3
fields. He has too many that he wants to see, though, and Access returns
errors about the query being too complex, or the form starts returning
unpredictable results.

It seems very strange to me that Access can continually compound filters on
a form using the "filter menu" for different fields, and that Excel can do
all this with one simple formula, but that I can't get an Access form to do
it.

Someone, please help me, this thing I'm making is PERFECT and has solved 12
big problems, but if the manager can't get this ability to change these
multiple critieria and see the records change as he does so (and be able to
delete criteria as well as change them), then the whole thing's a no go.

All I've been able to think of so far is to make 500 different queries and
run a Select Case on the AfterUpdate of every unbound criteria control,
which cycles through to see which fields are null and which have criteria
and run the corresponding query to refresh the form with. This would be
insane. Someone mentioned using a SQL string and code to change the query
results, rather than using specific queries, but I either don't know how to
do this or the SQL string would be too complex too (don't Access queries
made using the query builder represent SQL strings anyway?)

Someone, please help, I can't help thinking there MUST be a way to do this.
I'm sorry to sound deperate, but the idea of canning this thing and having 4
people spend an extra 45 minutes a day on completely duplicative data, w/
more possibilities for error, less flexibility for reporting, etc., is
driving me crazy. It's not helping the 4 people out either. And everyone's
on board, even this manager, if I can just get this one little gimmicky
thing going.


Thanks for ANY help, I would really appreciate it. I can buy lunch for
anyone who helps me come up w/ a solution.

pps, okay, one more thing. One of the things that I use most often that I
didn't mention before is to populate list boxes with data (such as all
project managers, or project categories), which allows users to select
multiple options. I then build a string of the selected ID's and use syntax
such as:

"Myfield In (" & strList & ")"

to limit the query to the selected ID's from the appropriate field.

I'm not sure if this would be helpful in your case, but I find it very
useful in that it allows the user to come up with more combinations. Post
back if you are interested and I can post some vba syntax for building the
string from the list box.

-Ted Allen

"Ted Allen" wrote:

I don't know of an easy way to do what you are looking to do in Access. I
think that the earlier advice to build the sql string in code may solve your
problem. It should result in a much simpler sql statement because you won't
need all of the OR conditions for null cases. Instead, the VBA code would
look at each control value and ignore it if it is null, or append the
appropriate SQL string if it is not.

There are many ways that you could approach the VBA code, but I'll show a
few typical lines (you'll need a reference to DAO):

Dim db as DAO.Database
Dim qdf as DAO.QueryDef
Dim strSQL as String
Dim strWhere as String
Dim StrAnd as String

StrWhere = ""
StrAnd = ""

If Nz(Me.Ctrl1,"") "" Then
strWhere = " QueryField1 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl1 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

If Nz(Me.Ctrl2,"") "" Then
strWhere = strAND & " QueryField2 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl2 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

'Go through the rest of the ctrls

StrSQL = "Select ... (Enter Your Base Select Statement)"
StrSQL = strSQL & " WHERE" & strWhere

Set db = CurrentDb
Set qdf = db.QueryDefs("YourQueryName")
qdf.sql = strSQL

set qdf = nothing
set db = nothing

Note though, that you may not be able to change the sql of a query that is
bound to an open subform, so you may have to temporarily change the data
source of the subform to nothing, then change the query, then change the data
source back. I'm not sure, I haven't tried that before.

Also, there are obviously other ways that you could loop through the
controls, and set the criteria, but it would depend somewhat on the data
types and other things. Also, the above assumes that you are adding LIKE
criteria in text fields, you would have to modify these somewhat to give the
exact criteria that you would be looking for.

I think that I have seen some earlier posts with precoded query forms that
would probably have some very good sample code. You may want to do some
google searches of the Access newsgroup to find some if you do go that route.

HTH, Ted Allen

"rgrantz" wrote:

Okay, I've got a pretty big problem here;

I'm trying to get rid of about 45 extra minutes of crap labor for 4 people
at once, as well as cutting down on duplicative data and reporting time.
I'm almost there now, and the 4 people are ecstatic about what's here so
far. However, there is ONE thing missing that I'm having a hard time doing:

This manager I'm making this for has about 13 different criteria he likes to
change and see new data for (customer name, who entered it, what date it was
received, what date range it was entered, what date range it was processed,
who processed it, what machine it was made on, who packaged it, who shipped
it, etc. etc.).
Currently he uses a combination of the Autofilter utility and the
Dcount(Data!...etc.) formula in Excel, which returns data based on any
criteria put in an entire row, which is nice. He can change any criteria
along the entire row, adding some, changing some, deleting others, etc., and
Excel just uses the whole row to continuously dynamically change the records
returned as the criteria change (ie. he enters a particular name for
OrderEnteredBy, and only sees those records, then he enters a name in
OrderShippedBy, and sees only records with BOTH criteria, then he enters
another one, etc. etc.., and when he deletes a criteria, the records reflect
the additional records that no longer have criteria there, but still meet
the OTHER criteria. You get what I'm saying here, right? It's pretty much
being able to stack 13 criteria, with each criteria field also having an
"ALL" (or technically, "NONE", for no criteria) choice in addition to actual
criteria to apply.

I need to do this on a form, and duplicate how the data changes after each
criteria is altered. However, there are too many criteria fields,
apparently, for Access to handle using the query builder. I can use the

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName]

in the criteria cell and

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName] is null

in the "Or" cell of the query builder, and this works great for about 3
fields. He has too many that he wants to see, though, and Access returns
errors about the query being too complex, or the form starts returning
unpredictable results.

It seems very strange to me that Access can continually compound filters on
a form using the "filter menu" for different fields, and that Excel can do
all this with one simple formula, but that I can't get an Access form to do
it.

Someone, please help me, this thing I'm making is PERFECT and has solved 12
big problems, but if the manager can't get this ability to change these
multiple critieria and see the records change as he does so (and be able to
delete criteria as well as change them), then the whole thing's a no go.

All I've been able to think of so far is to make 500 different queries and
run a Select Case on the AfterUpdate of every unbound criteria control,
which cycles through to see which fields are null and which have criteria
and run the corresponding query to refresh the form with. This would be
insane. Someone mentioned using a SQL string and code to change the query
results, rather than using specific queries, but I either don't know how to
do this or the SQL string would be too complex too (don't Access queries
made using the query builder represent SQL strings anyway?)

Someone, please help, I can't help thinking there MUST be a way to do this.
I'm sorry to sound deperate, but the idea of canning this thing and having 4
people spend an extra 45 minutes a day on completely duplicative data, w/
more possibilities for error, less flexibility for reporting, etc., is
driving me crazy. It's not helping the 4 people out either. And everyone's
on board, even this manager, if I can just get this one little gimmicky
thing going.


Thanks for ANY help, I would really appreciate it. I can buy lunch for
anyone who helps me come up w/ a solution.

Ted:

Thanks very much for the posts, it is greatly appreciated.

I'm curious about one thing: I made an ASP website using an Access DB
backend, and made a custom search page using exactly what I'm talking about,
but each drop-down list also had an "ALL" choice, which I believe passed the
"%" wildcard to the search. Why can we not use a "*" or "%" value in the
form, which passes a wildcard to the query as opposed to a Null?

In the page (which, again, is using ASP and MS Access), 10 different
criteria listboxes have the ALL choice, and the value passed to the query is
%:

option value="%"ALL/option

The ASP in the query language (on the results page) is:

SELECT * FROM SearchPage WHERE (Country LIKE '%::Country::%' AND Sale2 LIKE
'%::Sale2::%' AND Whatever LIKE '%::Whatever::%' AND etc. etc.') ORDER BY
::SortOrder:: ASC, Name ASC"
fp_sDefault="Country=&Genre2=&Allegiance=&Associat ion=&Association2=&SortOrd
er="
fp_sNoRecords="NO ITEMS FOUND: TRY OTHER CRITERIA"

Now, I know this is Frontpage extensions and ASP, but it IS a field passing
the wildcard criteria to SQL-based language in ASP. Is there really no way
to pass a "*" or some kind of "anything" criteria to a parameter in JUST
Access? I mean, this would be a magic bullet.

Thanks again.



"Ted Allen" wrote in message
...
pps, okay, one more thing. One of the things that I use most often that I
didn't mention before is to populate list boxes with data (such as all
project managers, or project categories), which allows users to select
multiple options. I then build a string of the selected ID's and use
syntax
such as:

"Myfield In (" & strList & ")"

to limit the query to the selected ID's from the appropriate field.

I'm not sure if this would be helpful in your case, but I find it very
useful in that it allows the user to come up with more combinations. Post
back if you are interested and I can post some vba syntax for building the
string from the list box.

-Ted Allen

"Ted Allen" wrote:

I don't know of an easy way to do what you are looking to do in Access.
I
think that the earlier advice to build the sql string in code may solve
your
problem. It should result in a much simpler sql statement because you
won't
need all of the OR conditions for null cases. Instead, the VBA code
would
look at each control value and ignore it if it is null, or append the
appropriate SQL string if it is not.

There are many ways that you could approach the VBA code, but I'll show
a
few typical lines (you'll need a reference to DAO):

Dim db as DAO.Database
Dim qdf as DAO.QueryDef
Dim strSQL as String
Dim strWhere as String
Dim StrAnd as String

StrWhere = ""
StrAnd = ""

If Nz(Me.Ctrl1,"") "" Then
strWhere = " QueryField1 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl1 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

If Nz(Me.Ctrl2,"") "" Then
strWhere = strAND & " QueryField2 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl2 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

'Go through the rest of the ctrls

StrSQL = "Select ... (Enter Your Base Select Statement)"
StrSQL = strSQL & " WHERE" & strWhere

Set db = CurrentDb
Set qdf = db.QueryDefs("YourQueryName")
qdf.sql = strSQL

set qdf = nothing
set db = nothing

Note though, that you may not be able to change the sql of a query that
is
bound to an open subform, so you may have to temporarily change the data
source of the subform to nothing, then change the query, then change the
data
source back. I'm not sure, I haven't tried that before.

Also, there are obviously other ways that you could loop through the
controls, and set the criteria, but it would depend somewhat on the data
types and other things. Also, the above assumes that you are adding
LIKE
criteria in text fields, you would have to modify these somewhat to give
the
exact criteria that you would be looking for.

I think that I have seen some earlier posts with precoded query forms
that
would probably have some very good sample code. You may want to do some
google searches of the Access newsgroup to find some if you do go that
route.

HTH, Ted Allen

"rgrantz" wrote:

Okay, I've got a pretty big problem here;

I'm trying to get rid of about 45 extra minutes of crap labor for 4
people
at once, as well as cutting down on duplicative data and reporting
time.
I'm almost there now, and the 4 people are ecstatic about what's here
so
far. However, there is ONE thing missing that I'm having a hard time
doing:

This manager I'm making this for has about 13 different criteria he
likes to
change and see new data for (customer name, who entered it, what date
it was
received, what date range it was entered, what date range it was
processed,
who processed it, what machine it was made on, who packaged it, who
shipped
it, etc. etc.).
Currently he uses a combination of the Autofilter utility and the
Dcount(Data!...etc.) formula in Excel, which returns data based on any
criteria put in an entire row, which is nice. He can change any
criteria
along the entire row, adding some, changing some, deleting others,
etc., and
Excel just uses the whole row to continuously dynamically change the
records
returned as the criteria change (ie. he enters a particular name for
OrderEnteredBy, and only sees those records, then he enters a name in
OrderShippedBy, and sees only records with BOTH criteria, then he
enters
another one, etc. etc.., and when he deletes a criteria, the records
reflect
the additional records that no longer have criteria there, but still
meet
the OTHER criteria. You get what I'm saying here, right? It's pretty
much
being able to stack 13 criteria, with each criteria field also having
an
"ALL" (or technically, "NONE", for no criteria) choice in addition to
actual
criteria to apply.

I need to do this on a form, and duplicate how the data changes after
each
criteria is altered. However, there are too many criteria fields,
apparently, for Access to handle using the query builder. I can use
the

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName]

in the criteria cell and

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName] is null

in the "Or" cell of the query builder, and this works great for about
3
fields. He has too many that he wants to see, though, and Access
returns
errors about the query being too complex, or the form starts returning
unpredictable results.

It seems very strange to me that Access can continually compound
filters on
a form using the "filter menu" for different fields, and that Excel
can do
all this with one simple formula, but that I can't get an Access form
to do
it.

Someone, please help me, this thing I'm making is PERFECT and has
solved 12
big problems, but if the manager can't get this ability to change
these
multiple critieria and see the records change as he does so (and be
able to
delete criteria as well as change them), then the whole thing's a no
go.

All I've been able to think of so far is to make 500 different queries
and
run a Select Case on the AfterUpdate of every unbound criteria
control,
which cycles through to see which fields are null and which have
criteria
and run the corresponding query to refresh the form with. This would
be
insane. Someone mentioned using a SQL string and code to change the
query
results, rather than using specific queries, but I either don't know
how to
do this or the SQL string would be too complex too (don't Access
queries
made using the query builder represent SQL strings anyway?)

Someone, please help, I can't help thinking there MUST be a way to do
this.
I'm sorry to sound deperate, but the idea of canning this thing and
having 4
people spend an extra 45 minutes a day on completely duplicative data,
w/
more possibilities for error, less flexibility for reporting, etc., is
driving me crazy. It's not helping the 4 people out either. And
everyone's
on board, even this manager, if I can just get this one little
gimmicky
thing going.


Thanks for ANY help, I would really appreciate it. I can buy lunch
for
anyone who helps me come up w/ a solution.

You do have more flexibility if you want to use the Like operator. For
instance, for your query criteria you can have:

Like [Forms]![YourFormName]![YourControlName]

Then, in the field they could type an * for all, or *A for all starting with
A, or *A* for all containing A, etc. If the * is entered for a field using
Like, you wouldn't need the separate condition for Or IsNull() (which might
trim the query enough to get rid of the error that you are encountering).

You could also have a command button that checks all fields and enters an *
if they were left blank before refreshing/opening the query so that the users
would not have to enter them.

In my applications, I haven't really had the need for this type of querying,
as much as choosing specific categories or names from a list, which is why I
have used the list boxes and dynamic sql more. You may want to try
experimenting with the google searches on some of these key words, as there
are many different approaches to query by form situations and you may find
something else that will work even better for your situation.

HTH, Ted Allen



"rgrantz" wrote:

Ted:

Thanks very much for the posts, it is greatly appreciated.

I'm curious about one thing: I made an ASP website using an Access DB
backend, and made a custom search page using exactly what I'm talking about,
but each drop-down list also had an "ALL" choice, which I believe passed the
"%" wildcard to the search. Why can we not use a "*" or "%" value in the
form, which passes a wildcard to the query as opposed to a Null?

In the page (which, again, is using ASP and MS Access), 10 different
criteria listboxes have the ALL choice, and the value passed to the query is
%:

option value="%"ALL/option

The ASP in the query language (on the results page) is:

SELECT * FROM SearchPage WHERE (Country LIKE '%::Country::%' AND Sale2 LIKE
'%::Sale2::%' AND Whatever LIKE '%::Whatever::%' AND etc. etc.') ORDER BY
::SortOrder:: ASC, Name ASC"
fp_sDefault="Country=&Genre2=&Allegiance=&Associat ion=&Association2=&SortOrd
er="
fp_sNoRecords="NO ITEMS FOUND: TRY OTHER CRITERIA"

Now, I know this is Frontpage extensions and ASP, but it IS a field passing
the wildcard criteria to SQL-based language in ASP. Is there really no way
to pass a "*" or some kind of "anything" criteria to a parameter in JUST
Access? I mean, this would be a magic bullet.

Thanks again.



"Ted Allen" wrote in message
...
pps, okay, one more thing. One of the things that I use most often that I
didn't mention before is to populate list boxes with data (such as all
project managers, or project categories), which allows users to select
multiple options. I then build a string of the selected ID's and use
syntax
such as:

"Myfield In (" & strList & ")"

to limit the query to the selected ID's from the appropriate field.

I'm not sure if this would be helpful in your case, but I find it very
useful in that it allows the user to come up with more combinations. Post
back if you are interested and I can post some vba syntax for building the
string from the list box.

-Ted Allen

"Ted Allen" wrote:

I don't know of an easy way to do what you are looking to do in Access.
I
think that the earlier advice to build the sql string in code may solve
your
problem. It should result in a much simpler sql statement because you
won't
need all of the OR conditions for null cases. Instead, the VBA code
would
look at each control value and ignore it if it is null, or append the
appropriate SQL string if it is not.

There are many ways that you could approach the VBA code, but I'll show
a
few typical lines (you'll need a reference to DAO):

Dim db as DAO.Database
Dim qdf as DAO.QueryDef
Dim strSQL as String
Dim strWhere as String
Dim StrAnd as String

StrWhere = ""
StrAnd = ""

If Nz(Me.Ctrl1,"") "" Then
strWhere = " QueryField1 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl1 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

If Nz(Me.Ctrl2,"") "" Then
strWhere = strAND & " QueryField2 Like '*" & Me.Ctrl2 & "*'"
strAnd = " AND"
Endif

'Go through the rest of the ctrls

StrSQL = "Select ... (Enter Your Base Select Statement)"
StrSQL = strSQL & " WHERE" & strWhere

Set db = CurrentDb
Set qdf = db.QueryDefs("YourQueryName")
qdf.sql = strSQL

set qdf = nothing
set db = nothing

Note though, that you may not be able to change the sql of a query that
is
bound to an open subform, so you may have to temporarily change the data
source of the subform to nothing, then change the query, then change the
data
source back. I'm not sure, I haven't tried that before.

Also, there are obviously other ways that you could loop through the
controls, and set the criteria, but it would depend somewhat on the data
types and other things. Also, the above assumes that you are adding
LIKE
criteria in text fields, you would have to modify these somewhat to give
the
exact criteria that you would be looking for.

I think that I have seen some earlier posts with precoded query forms
that
would probably have some very good sample code. You may want to do some
google searches of the Access newsgroup to find some if you do go that
route.

HTH, Ted Allen

"rgrantz" wrote:

Okay, I've got a pretty big problem here;

I'm trying to get rid of about 45 extra minutes of crap labor for 4
people
at once, as well as cutting down on duplicative data and reporting
time.
I'm almost there now, and the 4 people are ecstatic about what's here
so
far. However, there is ONE thing missing that I'm having a hard time
doing:

This manager I'm making this for has about 13 different criteria he
likes to
change and see new data for (customer name, who entered it, what date
it was
received, what date range it was entered, what date range it was
processed,
who processed it, what machine it was made on, who packaged it, who
shipped
it, etc. etc.).
Currently he uses a combination of the Autofilter utility and the
Dcount(Data!...etc.) formula in Excel, which returns data based on any
criteria put in an entire row, which is nice. He can change any
criteria
along the entire row, adding some, changing some, deleting others,
etc., and
Excel just uses the whole row to continuously dynamically change the
records
returned as the criteria change (ie. he enters a particular name for
OrderEnteredBy, and only sees those records, then he enters a name in
OrderShippedBy, and sees only records with BOTH criteria, then he
enters
another one, etc. etc.., and when he deletes a criteria, the records
reflect
the additional records that no longer have criteria there, but still
meet
the OTHER criteria. You get what I'm saying here, right? It's pretty
much
being able to stack 13 criteria, with each criteria field also having
an
"ALL" (or technically, "NONE", for no criteria) choice in addition to
actual
criteria to apply.

I need to do this on a form, and duplicate how the data changes after
each
criteria is altered. However, there are too many criteria fields,
apparently, for Access to handle using the query builder. I can use
the

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName]

in the criteria cell and

[forms]![FormName]![UnboundCriteriaFieldName] is null

in the "Or" cell of the query builder, and this works great for about
3
fields. He has too many that he wants to see, though, and Access
returns
errors about the query being too complex, or the form starts returning
unpredictable results.

It seems very strange to me that Access can continually compound
filters on
a form using the "filter menu" for different fields, and that Excel
can do
all this with one simple formula, but that I can't get an Access form
to do
it.

Someone, please help me, this thing I'm making is PERFECT and has
solved 12
big problems, but if the manager can't get this ability to change
these
multiple critieria and see the records change as he does so (and be
able to
delete criteria as well as change them), then the whole thing's a no
go.

All I've been able to think of so far is to make 500 different queries
and
run a Select Case on the AfterUpdate of every unbound criteria
control,
which cycles through to see which fields are null and which have
criteria
and run the corresponding query to refresh the form with. This would
be
insane. Someone mentioned using a SQL string and code to change the
query
results, rather than using specific queries, but I either don't know
how to
do this or the SQL string would be too complex too (don't Access
queries
made using the query builder represent SQL strings anyway?)

Someone, please help, I can't help thinking there MUST be a way to do
this.
I'm sorry to sound deperate, but the idea of canning this thing and
having 4
people spend an extra 45 minutes a day on completely duplicative data,
w/
more possibilities for error, less flexibility for reporting, etc., is
driving me crazy. It's not helping the 4 people out either. And
everyone's
on board, even this manager, if I can just get this one little
gimmicky
thing going.


Thanks for ANY help, I would really appreciate it. I can buy lunch
for
anyone who helps me come up w/ a solution.