I don't understanding what makes this query work

[MTLavinia]

I inherited a .mdb that has no documentation.

One query contains a number of fields, one, "Last Name" is sorted in
ascending order and has for criteria <"iq". I do not understand where 'iq'
comes from.

The query breaks a list of names into 2 parts, 11 names and another query
that uses >"iq" produces the remaining 12 names. The purpose of the query is
to print a specific report containing those names (and related data). The
report for the 2 separate queries is different, hence the need to break it at
that point.

If I remove the criteria then the query shows all 23 names. So 'iq' must be
controlling the count. I thougth perhaps 'iq' had a special meaning within
Access but I cannot find any info along those lines so I am stumped as to why
this query works.

There is no sequence of 'iq' characters in any records in the field.

I need to change this query because the report requirements has changed and I
need to change the number of records that are printed on each of 3 different
reports.

Does anyone have an idea of why this criteria works?

Thanks, Jon

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Jon,

A criterion such as >"iq" on a LastName field would accept all names
beginning with A to Iq (e.g. "Abney" to "Iqbal") and reject names
beginning with Ir to Z.

 

[MTLavinia]

Hi Jon,

A criterion such as >"iq" on a LastName field would accept all names
beginning with A to Iq (e.g. "Abney" to "Iqbal") and reject names
beginning with Ir to Z.

So simple, it's embarrasing! I thought the query criteria in this case was
'set in stone', it turns out that it must have been altered before the query
was run in order to produce the desired results. Back to the drawing
board....

thanks, Jon