In addition, you can use an expression to set a validation rule. For example, to set the default value for a date field to the current date, in the Default Value property box for that field, you type: Date() You can also use expressions in Access to provide a default value for a field in a table or for a control. In this case, the ampersands ( &) combine the value in theįirstName field, a space character (a space enclosed in quotation marks), and the value in the If you want to combine those first and last names and then display them in a single field, you can create a calculated field in the table or in a query: & " " &. For example, many tables store first and last names in separate fields. You can create a calculated field that combines two or more table fields. A column in a table or query that results from such a calculation is called a calculated field. One of the most common ways to use expressions in Access is to calculate values that don't exist directly in your data. These default values appear whenever you open a table, form, or report.Ĭreate a validation rule to control what values users can enter in a field or control.ĭefine query criteria to limit results to a desired subset. You can calculate values in fields in tables and queries, and you can also calculate values in controls on forms and reports.ĭefine a default value for a table field or for a control on a form or report. You can use expressions in the following ways:Ĭalculate values that do not exist directly in your data. In this case, the first two arguments are used.Ģ The interval argument tells Access which part of the date to return - in this case, "yyyy" tells Access that you want only the year part of the date returned.ģ The date argument tells Access where to look for the date value - in this case, ! tells Access to look for the date in the BirthDate field of the Customers table. Let's examine this expression in more detail.ġ DatePart is a function that examines a date and returns a specific portion. This expression consists of the DatePart function and two argument values: "yyyy" and !. For example, suppose you want to tell Access "Look at the BirthDate field in the Customers table and tell me the year of the customer's birth." You can write this expression as: DatePart("yyyy",!) Think of it this way: when you want Access to do something, you have to speak its language. In this articleĬomparison of Access expressions and Excel formulas This article provides overview information about expressions - when to use them, what their component parts are, and how they compare with Microsoft Excel formulas.
You can use expressions for a wide variety of tasks in Microsoft Access, such as performing mathematical calculations, combining or extracting text, or validating data.
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