Simply Access Tips. Issue April 26 th, Welcome to the twelfth edition of Simply Access Tips for 2007.

Transcription

1 Hi [FirstName], Simply Access Tips Issue April 26 th, 2007 Welcome to the twelfth edition of Simply Access Tips for Housekeeping as usual is at the end of the Newsletter so, if you need to know how to unsubscribe, white-list, etc., then scroll to the bottom. Weekly Update Hello [FirstName], OK, my three weeks of part-time work is over and I did not keep up my end of the bargain, that is, weekly Newsletters. My apology for being tardy. I am starting back at work full-time, from next week, for a period of four months. We will just have to wait to see how I manage. I went away for a week or so and have just got back, thus why you did not receive a Newsletter last week. My husband and I went to Alice Springs a town in the Northern Territory, almost smack bang in the middle of Australia. It is in the middle of a desert, but it is greener there than it is here in Bendigo. My husband had a conference, but we went up for a couple of extra days and did a couple of trips. One out to Palm Valley (about 125 km from Alice Springs), this valley has the only specimens of this type of palm do not ask me the name. My husband is into all that sort of stuff and loved it. Took photos, scratched around in the dirt. We had to go by 4WD to get there and drove through a river bed (which was dry). The next day we went out to Rainbow Valley it gets its name due to the rock face having many colors. This was quite impressive and a mere 90 km drive from Alice Springs. It was a good break, but now back to reality. Talk to you all next week. Julie

2 Questions Unfortunately, I am unable to answer individual questions, personally, via . Purely due to the fact that all I would do is answer questions. You do, though, have three other options for me to answer your questions: 1) I can include them in an edition of Simply Access Tips (if you do not mind your question being shared). There may be a wait before they are included, depending on how many I have. 2) You can go to All Experts and post your question there; I answer one question per day from All Experts (this helps to keep control of the questions): If I am not available, there are many other experts. 3) Or, you can subscribe to my Question Subscription Service, $23.95 AUD per month, for unlimited questions: Learn VBA You may have noticed I have used VBA code in some of my answers. If you would like to learn this valuable skill to enable you to expand the flexibility of your Microsoft Access database, then click below to get your first lesson free, or cut and paste into your URL Address bar. You will need to scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your information into the form. Tips NOTE: If you are copying code from the tips and find it is not copying correctly i.e. the html is also being copied, then copy them into NotePad first (not Microsoft Word, as Word keeps the formatting) then copy from NotePad into Microsoft Access. Tip 1: Random Numbers (again, but different) Question I am building a database for a hospital. My employer has told me he wants in the program a small procedure that will create which doctors will stay overnight for job.

3 Each night will stay 2 doctors and 5 nurses in the hospital. I have the personnel in a table that has their personal data and the dates they don't want to stay in. So, what I want is to pick the 2 doctors and the 5 nurses randomly from my table, check if they are able to stay in the certain date and add them in the new list (table). Answer You need to randomly select the staff from a query that displays the relevant information, i.e. the available staff. You will need to build two queries, one that includes the doctors who are available for that date, and one that includes the nurses who are available for that date. (I m not sure of the table set-up, so difficult to instruct on how to build this query.) Make sure you include the primary key for the table in both the queries. Then, from these queries, we will need to randomly select two doctors and five nurses. You are going to need to write quite a bit of code to achieve this. I m not sure what your level of understanding is, so I will step you through it. My apologies if I am spoon-feeding you. Firstly, click on the Modules section of the database, then click on 'New'. This will open the VBE editing window. There should be one line of code that says, 'Option Compare Database'. Below this line of code type the following, 'Option Explicit'. Then, on the toolbar, click on Insert > Procedure. Name the procedure frandomnurses Type = Function Scope = Public Click on OK. The following two lines of code should be displayed: Public Function frandom() End Function In between these two lines of code, type the following: On Error GoTo ErrorHandling 'Declare all the variables Dim db As Object Dim rst As Object Dim inumberrecords As Integer Dim irecordid As Integer Dim i As Integer

4 Reference the database and recordset you wish to use, changing 'qrystayover' to 'the name of the query that contains the nurses. Set db = CurrentDb Set rst = db.openrecordset("qrystayover") 'Moves to the first, then to the last record, in order, to be able to count the number 'of records. rst.movefirst rst.movelast inumberrecords = rst.recordcount 'Randomly selects a number from this record set. irecordid = Int((iNumberRecords) * Rnd + 1) 'Moves to the first record, then steps through the records until the above randomly 'selected record is reached. rst.movefirst For i = 1 To irecordid rst.movenext Next i 'Assigns the value of the Primary Key for the recordset, in this case StaffID. Change to 'the primary key for your record set. This is likely to be the cheque number field. frandom = rst!staffid Exit Function ErrorHandling: MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description Close the coding window by clicking on the outer-most right-hand X. Create another function but call this one frandomdoctors. The code will be the same as above, but change the qrystayover to the name of the query that contains the doctors. When you are finished, go to the forms section. If you don t already have a form in mind, open a new form in design view. Add a command button to this form, NOT using the wizard, i.e. turn the wizard off or, click on cancel when the first of the wizard windows appears.

5 Right-click on this command button and select 'Properties' from the drop-down list. Click on the 'Event' tab. Place your cursor next to 'On Click', then click on the '...' button that should now appear next to 'On Click'. Select 'Code Builder' and click on OK. This will open the code for the command button with the following two lines of code: Private Sub Command0_Click() End Sub In between these two lines of code, type the following: 'This code will run the random code and assign the randomly selected available nurses and doctors Primary Key to a table. 'Change the table and field names as required. On Error goto ErrorHandling Dim i As Integer Dim istaff as Integer dim db as Object dim rst as Object Set db = CurrentDb Set rst = db.openrecordset ("tbltostorenames") For i = 1 To 5 istaff = frandomnurse rst.addnew rst!primarykeyfieldname = istaff rst.update Next i For i = 1 To 2 istaff = frandomdoctor rst.addnew rst!primarykeyfieldname = istaff rst.update Next i rst.close db.close Exit Sub ErrorHandling: MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description

6 Close the code window and check the command button to see if it works. Use this data to build a query, that has both the table with just the primary key and the table that has the rest of the staff information, to produce the information you require. Tip 2: Inventory Report Question I created a form that sums up the product counts of my main table (i.e. dinner plates = 140, saucers = 47, etc.). I have created a table with the total inventory of all the products (i.e. dinner plates total, saucers = 150 total, etc.). I need to create a report to produce the current inventory on hand (the difference between the total inventory of each product minus the total amount of inventory currently checked out). Answer First of all build a query, adding the table that contains the information in your first paragraph. To this query, add the identification field, that identifies each product and the field that contains the number of products. With the query in design view, click on the Totals button - it looks like a funny E. This will add a new column to your query design grid called 'Total'. Leave the product identifier as 'GroupBy', but change the field that contains the number of products to 'Sum', this will tally the total number for each product. Build a second query, (New > Design View) add the query you have just built and the table with the total inventory - join the two tables by the product identifier - by clicking on this field in one table and dragging over to this field in the second table. Add the product identifier to the query design grid, the total number of each product and the sum of each product. Then in the next available column in the first row type the following: Available:[TotalProducts] - [SumOfProducts] This will display how many items you have left. Change the names in the [] to your field names.

7 Finally: Build a report based on this query, by following the report Wizard. Tip 3: Using Error Handling an example Question I have a text control called "MSO" that has a custom auto number assigned to it from a VBA After Update event each time the user opens the form and updates the first control on the form. The MSO number is a four digit number that builds in increments of 1 and concatenates the suffix "-07" each time a new record is entered. I need help with assigning the first number to the MSO control when the form is being used for the first time and there are no records. The code I am using gives me an error message when the record count is 0. It states "incorrect use of Null." Is there a way I can assign a default starting number to this field for the first record? Here is the code: **************************** RequestedBy _ AfterUpdate Dim db As DAO.Database Dim rs As DAO.Recordset Dim strsql As String Dim NextNum As Integer Set db = CurrentDb strsql = "SELECT Max(left([MSO],4)) AS MaxNum From 2007msotbl;" Set rs = db.openrecordset(strsql) NextNum = rs!maxnum + 1 Me.MSO.Value = NextNum & "-07" ********************************** I tried the following to correct the error but it didn't work: If rs.recordcount = 0 Then NextNum = "1000" Else

8 NextNum = rs!maxnum + 1 End If Answer Many thanks for the question. Try to use Error Handling. For example, change your code to the following: (I added the new code in orange) RequestedBy _ AfterUpdate Dim db As DAO.Database Dim rs As DAO.Recordset Dim strsql As String Dim NextNum As Integer On Error Goto Errorhandler Set db = CurrentDb strsql = "SELECT Max(left([MSO],4)) AS MaxNum From 2007msotbl;" Set rs = db.openrecordset(strsql) NextNum = rs!maxnum + 1 ResumeHere: Me.MSO.Value = NextNum & "-07" Exit Sub ErrorHandler: If err.number = 94 then NextNum = "1000" Goto ResumeHere Else MsgBox = Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description End If Housekeeping Once again, just a quick reminder: Please ensure the following address is whitelisted with your ISP: jmisson@iprimus.com.au This will ensure the weekly arrival of this Newsletter.

9 Unsubscribe To unsubscribe to this Newsletter, just hit the REPLY button and type UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject section of the . I will remove you from my ing list. You will not receive any more Newsletters unless you re-apply via the website.