Using regular expressions in microsoft access

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Post your question to a community of , developers. Sign in to post your reply or Sign up for a free account. Sign in Join Now. New Post. Breezwell Fab 2. Hi Everyone I am curious to know if there is some good literature or tutorials focusing on leveraging regular expressions in Access. I am interested in providing users with the ability to search free text or records from a database table and simply highlight keywords and various text patterns to get started. Follow Post Reply. It's not possible to highlight words in text fields.

Only a. I would start with showing the users the right-click pop-up possibilities to filter and sort and when you're able to code in VBA you can use the me. Thanks for the reply. One of the most common ways to use expressions in Access is to calculate values that don't exist directly in your data. A column in a table or query that results from such a calculation is called a calculated field. You can create a calculated field that combines two or more table fields. For example, many tables store first and last names in separate fields.

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:.

You can also use expressions in Access to provide a default value for a field in a table or for a control. 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:. In addition, you can use an expression to set a validation rule. For example, you can use a validation rule in a control or table field to require that the date that is entered is greater than or equal to the current date.

In that case, you set the value in the Validation Rule property box to:. Finally, you can use an expression to set criteria for a query.

For example, suppose that you want to see product sales for the orders that were shipped within a certain time frame. You can enter criteria to define a date range, and Access returns only the rows that match the criteria.

For example, your expression might look like this:. When you add criteria to the query and then run the query, it returns only those values that match the specified dates. Calculates the difference between the date values in two text box controls called RequiredDate and ShippedDate on a report. Sets a validation rule for a numeric field in a table — users must enter values greater than zero.

An expression consists of a number of possible components that you can use, alone or in combination, to produce a result. These components include:. Identifiers The names of table fields or controls on forms or reports, or the properties of those fields or controls. Constants Values that do not change — such as strings of text, or numbers that are not calculated by an expression. Values Strings, such as "Enter a number between 1 and An identifier is the name of a field, property, or control.

You use an identifier in an expression to refer to the value that is associated with a field, property, or control. This expression subtracts the value of the ShippedDate field or control from the value of the RequiredDate field or control.

In this expression, both RequiredDate and ShippedDate serve as identifiers. Sign in Join Now. New Post. If anyone can throw any light, or even supply links to the relevant information, then I'd be grateful. Follow Post Reply. Actually, triggered by your post Chip, I did some digging of my own through my own old stuff , and came up with something which is helpful, but could possibly have omitted some extra stuff I never knew about I suppose. My comparison string has now been changed to Like 'P[LP] '.

While this is not perfect, it's certainly better than I started with. ChipR 1, Expert 1GB. Finally found my old post on this. I didn't ever find an alternative, but it does work nicely. Thanks for that Chip. I was certainly unaware of such functionality being available in VBA even if via 3rd party software.

Figure shows the layout for a query to find part numbers that don't match our criteria. Figure Calling the RegExp function from a query. Running the query in Figure returns the part numbers that do not match our given criteria so that you can review them before placing them into a master database.

Although you can do this without tapping into the power of regular expressions, it requires a much more involved solution. As you discover the power of regular expressions, you will find them to be very robust for all kinds of text processing.

Another handy trick is to use them to verify text input on a form. To do so, call the custom RegExp function from the BeforeUpdate event of the text box.