Recordset in subform based on field in parent form

[Lyn]

Hi,
I am working on a genealogy form. The only table (so far) lists everybody
in the family, one record per person. Each record has an autonum ID.

The parent form (frmMainForm) displays the data in each record, which
includes the ID of the father and the mother (who also have records in the
table). One record per form.

I have a Tab Control in the form, and in one of the tabs I have a subform
(sfmSiblings) in which I wish to list all the brothers and sisters of the
person currently being displayed in the main form. The basis of the
selection is all records which have the same father ID or mother ID field
values (excluding of course the person displayed in the main form). I am
trying to use the values in the controls on the main form where the father
ID and mother ID are displayed in the subform query.

I created the subform originally as a form with a query in which I hardcoded
test values for the father ID and mother ID. This works fine. Then I added
this form as a subform in the Tab Control of the main form. I viewed the
SQL for the query and updated it by substituting the values of the controls
on the main form for the hardcoding. That is, instead of using the
following format in the SELECT statement:

WHERE Person.IDFather = 5 OR Person.IDMother = 6 ...

I substituted:

WHERE Person.IDFather = frmMainForm!IDFath OR Person.IDMother =
frmMainForm!IDMoth ...

I obviously have this syntax wrong, because when I run the main form, for
each record I get msgboxes prompting for the values frmMainForm!IDFath and
frmMainForm!IDMoth. If I respond with the correct values, the subform
displays the correct data.

I hope that this makes some sense. Essentially my question is: how can I
make the query in the subform use criteria displayed in controls on the main
form?

Another aspect of this is that all the books and tutorials I have seen
assume that the subform will be used to display data from a different but
related table from the record in the main form. In my case, there is only
one table and I want to display related records (via the parent IDs) from
that same table. Am I not allowed to do this? Or will I need some sort of
additional crossreference table?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Allen Browne]

Hi Lyn

You could try:
WHERE (Person.IDFather = Nz(Forms!frmMainForm!IDFath,0))
OR (Person.IDMother = Nz(Forms!frmMainForm!IDMoth,0))

The Nz() should cope with the case where the main form is at a new record.
However, you will probably get an initial error on load, because Access
loads the subform before the main form.

On your broader question, you can join a table to itself, by dragging
multiple copies of the table into the Relationships window. There is an
example of this with animal pedigrees at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-06.html

 

[Reggie]

Lyn, just put the following in the criteria line of the query:

[Forms]![frmMainForm]![IDFath] Or [Forms]![frmMainForm]![IDMoth]

Hope it helps!

 

[Lyn]

Allen,
Thanks for your suggestions. The animal pedigree tip looks very similar to
what I am doing. I will give this a try.

BTW, I live in Sydney.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Hi Lyn

You could try:
WHERE (Person.IDFather = Nz(Forms!frmMainForm!IDFath,0))
OR (Person.IDMother = Nz(Forms!frmMainForm!IDMoth,0))

The Nz() should cope with the case where the main form is at a new record.
However, you will probably get an initial error on load, because Access
loads the subform before the main form.

On your broader question, you can join a table to itself, by dragging
multiple copies of the table into the Relationships window. There is an
example of this with animal pedigrees at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-06.html

 

[Lyn]

Thanks Reggie. From all the responses, it looks as though the main thing I
was missing was the "Forms!" prefix. I have gotten too used to the "Me!"
shortcut which of course does not work here.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Lyn, just put the following in the criteria line of the query:

[Forms]![frmMainForm]![IDFath] Or [Forms]![frmMainForm]![IDMoth]

Hope it helps!
--
Reggie

www.smittysinet.com
----------

Hi,
I am working on a genealogy form. The only table (so far) lists everybody
in the family, one record per person. Each record has an autonum ID.

The parent form (frmMainForm) displays the data in each record, which
includes the ID of the father and the mother (who also have records in the
table). One record per form.

I have a Tab Control in the form, and in one of the tabs I have a subform
(sfmSiblings) in which I wish to list all the brothers and sisters of the
person currently being displayed in the main form. The basis of the
selection is all records which have the same father ID or mother ID field
values (excluding of course the person displayed in the main form). I am
trying to use the values in the controls on the main form where the father
ID and mother ID are displayed in the subform query.

I created the subform originally as a form with a query in which I hardcoded
test values for the father ID and mother ID. This works fine. Then I added
this form as a subform in the Tab Control of the main form. I viewed the
SQL for the query and updated it by substituting the values of the controls
on the main form for the hardcoding. That is, instead of using the
following format in the SELECT statement:

WHERE Person.IDFather = 5 OR Person.IDMother = 6 ...

I substituted:

WHERE Person.IDFather = frmMainForm!IDFath OR Person.IDMother =
frmMainForm!IDMoth ...

I obviously have this syntax wrong, because when I run the main form, for
each record I get msgboxes prompting for the values frmMainForm!IDFath and
frmMainForm!IDMoth. If I respond with the correct values, the subform
displays the correct data.

I hope that this makes some sense. Essentially my question is: how can I
make the query in the subform use criteria displayed in controls on the main
form?

Another aspect of this is that all the books and tutorials I have seen
assume that the subform will be used to display data from a different but
related table from the record in the main form. In my case, there is only
one table and I want to display related records (via the parent IDs) from
that same table. Am I not allowed to do this? Or will I need some sort of
additional crossreference table?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Lyn]

Thanks again to everyone who responded to my original question. I think
Allen was right, using a control value in the main form as a criterion does
not work because the subform loads before the main form.

The Person record must be available before the main form or subform opens.
So I have tried using multiple copies of the table (Person) in the query
(with alias names) with different types of joins. Firstly, just the one
alias (Person_Sib) joined by the IDFather field in each table (I have left
out IDMother for simplicity). The Person table in the query is intended to
be the record in the main form, and the Person_Sib alias is intended to find
all the records with the same IDFather. However, in this case, Person_Sib
just seems to track Person -- ie, Person_Sib returns only the same (single)
record as Person.

So I have tried a different tack. I inserted a second alias of Person
(Person_Father) between the two original tables in the query. In this case,
Person.IDFather is joined to Person_Father.IDPerson (the autonum record ID)
which is joined to Person_Sib.IDFather. At this point I got confused over
what sort of joins to use. Using INNER joins for both (which I am sure is
wrong), Person_Sib still seems to track the same record as Person.

The Person record is the subject of the main form. I need the Person_Sib
alias to list ALL records with the same IDFather (and eventually "OR same
IDMother"). I will of course eventually filter out the Person_Sib record
that matches the Person in the main form (who cannot be his/her own
sibling). How can I do this in the Access query? Or do I have to resort to
VBA to create the sibling recordset? What am I doing wrong? (I hope that
this makes sense.)

Thanks for any further assistance.
--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Hi Lyn

You could try:
WHERE (Person.IDFather = Nz(Forms!frmMainForm!IDFath,0))
OR (Person.IDMother = Nz(Forms!frmMainForm!IDMoth,0))

The Nz() should cope with the case where the main form is at a new record.
However, you will probably get an initial error on load, because Access
loads the subform before the main form.

On your broader question, you can join a table to itself, by dragging
multiple copies of the table into the Relationships window. There is an
example of this with animal pedigrees at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-06.html

 

[Allen Browne]

Could you set the subform so it intially loads no-one:
SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE (False);

Then use the Current event of the main form to assign its RecordSource.
Something like this:
Dim strWhere As String

If Me.NewRecord Then
strWhere = "(False);"
Else
strWhere = "(Person_Father.IDPerson = " & Me.IDPerson & ") OR
(Person_Mother.IDPerson = " & Me.IDPerson & ");"
Me.[Child1].Form.RecordSource = "SELECT * FROM SomeTable WHERE " &
strWhere
End If

 

[Lyn]

Allen,
I have tried your suggestion and variations of it, but no luck. After a lot
of trial and error, I have resorted to using VBA code similar to what you
provided in your previous. I have simplified the requirements to the bare
minimum, just to get something that works, then I can build it up again.

I now have a form containing a subform (sfmSibs) in a tab control. I have
removed any query from the subform's Record Source.

In the Current event for the main form, which I already use to populate some
unbound controls on the main form, I have added the following code:

Dim mySQL As String

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.SurnameBirth, Person.FirstName, " & _
"Person.DOB, Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & ";"
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL
End If

When I run this, if Me![IDFather] is null or zero, of course it works (blank
form as expected). However, any record with a non-zero Me![IDFather] gives
this error:

Run-time error '2465':
Microsoft Office Access can't find the field "|"
referred to in your expression.

Not very helpful, as I don't have "|" anywhere in the expression. (Once
when I mistyped a word, this error message displayed the word in error, but
not this time.)

When I click Debug, the following line is highlighted:

Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

I presume that the problem is somewhere in the mySQL string. I have tried
it with and without the terminating semicolon ";" (VBA often seems to insert
that for you), but no effect.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this when the field in error is quoted as "|"
?!?!

A related question: instead of doing this in the Current event of the main
form, could I do it in the On Click event of the tab control Page? So that
the subform is not populated unless the relevant tab is clicked. Just
trying to learn as much as I can from this.

Thanks again for your help.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Could you set the subform so it intially loads no-one:
SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE (False);

Then use the Current event of the main form to assign its RecordSource.
Something like this:
Dim strWhere As String

If Me.NewRecord Then
strWhere = "(False);"
Else
strWhere = "(Person_Father.IDPerson = " & Me.IDPerson & ") OR
(Person_Mother.IDPerson = " & Me.IDPerson & ");"
Me.[Child1].Form.RecordSource = "SELECT * FROM SomeTable WHERE " &
strWhere
End If

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Thanks again to everyone who responded to my original question. I think
Allen was right, using a control value in the main form as a criterion does
not work because the subform loads before the main form.

The Person record must be available before the main form or subform opens.
So I have tried using multiple copies of the table (Person) in the query
(with alias names) with different types of joins. Firstly, just the one
alias (Person_Sib) joined by the IDFather field in each table (I have left
out IDMother for simplicity). The Person table in the query is intended to
be the record in the main form, and the Person_Sib alias is intended to find
all the records with the same IDFather. However, in this case, Person_Sib
just seems to track Person -- ie, Person_Sib returns only the same (single)
record as Person.

So I have tried a different tack. I inserted a second alias of Person
(Person_Father) between the two original tables in the query. In this case,
Person.IDFather is joined to Person_Father.IDPerson (the autonum record ID)
which is joined to Person_Sib.IDFather. At this point I got confused over
what sort of joins to use. Using INNER joins for both (which I am sure is
wrong), Person_Sib still seems to track the same record as Person.

The Person record is the subject of the main form. I need the Person_Sib
alias to list ALL records with the same IDFather (and eventually "OR same
IDMother"). I will of course eventually filter out the Person_Sib record
that matches the Person in the main form (who cannot be his/her own
sibling). How can I do this in the Access query? Or do I have to

resort

to
VBA to create the sibling recordset? What am I doing wrong? (I hope that
this makes sense.)

Thanks for any further assistance.
--
Cheers,
Lyn.

in
the of
the I
am viewed
the form,
for frmMainForm!IDFath
and can different
but is
only

 

[Allen Browne]

Hi Lyn.

To debug this, ask Access to print mySQL out to the immediate window:
mySQL = "SELECT ...
Debug.Print mySQL
Me.[sfmSibs].Form...

Now try it. Open the Immediate window (Ctrl+G). Access will have printed the
faulty SQL statement there. Copy it to clipboard. Then create a new query,
switch it to SQL View (View menu), and paste in the faulty SQL string. This
should help you to see what's wrong, and you will see how to fix the
assigment to mySQL.

The pipe character is a place holder for the field name. It appears that you
are getting the error message without the correct name being inserted into
the place holder. Ultimately it means that Access can't make sense of the
SQL statement. For example, if IDFather is actually a Text field (not a
Number field), then the SQL statement needs exta quote marks:
"WHERE Person.IDFather = """ & Me![IDFather] & """;"

Another cause of the error is Name AutoCorrect incorrectly tracking the
field name. Uncheck the boxes under Tools | Options | General | Name
AutoCorrect, and then compact the database (Tools | Database Utilities).

You're on the right track, so it is worth continuing to debug this. Do
include the trailing semicolon in the sql statement.

It would be possible to use the Change event of the tab control (not the
Click event of the page) rather than the Current event of the main form. The
problem with that approach is that it leaves the wrong data showing in the
subform when you change record in the main form, until you move to a
different tab and move back to the one you want again.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
I have tried your suggestion and variations of it, but no luck. After a lot
of trial and error, I have resorted to using VBA code similar to what you
provided in your previous. I have simplified the requirements to the bare
minimum, just to get something that works, then I can build it up again.

I now have a form containing a subform (sfmSibs) in a tab control. I have
removed any query from the subform's Record Source.

In the Current event for the main form, which I already use to populate some
unbound controls on the main form, I have added the following code:

Dim mySQL As String

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.SurnameBirth, Person.FirstName, " & _
"Person.DOB, Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & ";"
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL
End If

When I run this, if Me![IDFather] is null or zero, of course it works (blank
form as expected). However, any record with a non-zero Me![IDFather] gives
this error:

Run-time error '2465':
Microsoft Office Access can't find the field "|"
referred to in your expression.

Not very helpful, as I don't have "|" anywhere in the expression. (Once
when I mistyped a word, this error message displayed the word in error, but
not this time.)

When I click Debug, the following line is highlighted:

Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

I presume that the problem is somewhere in the mySQL string. I have tried
it with and without the terminating semicolon ";" (VBA often seems to insert
that for you), but no effect.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this when the field in error is quoted as "|"
?!?!

A related question: instead of doing this in the Current event of the main
form, could I do it in the On Click event of the tab control Page? So that
the subform is not populated unless the relevant tab is clicked. Just
trying to learn as much as I can from this.

Thanks again for your help.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Could you set the subform so it intially loads no-one:
SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE (False);

Then use the Current event of the main form to assign its RecordSource.
Something like this:
Dim strWhere As String

If Me.NewRecord Then
strWhere = "(False);"
Else
strWhere = "(Person_Father.IDPerson = " & Me.IDPerson & ") OR
(Person_Mother.IDPerson = " & Me.IDPerson & ");"
Me.[Child1].Form.RecordSource = "SELECT * FROM SomeTable WHERE " &
strWhere
End If

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Thanks again to everyone who responded to my original question. I think
Allen was right, using a control value in the main form as a criterion does
not work because the subform loads before the main form.

The Person record must be available before the main form or subform opens.
So I have tried using multiple copies of the table (Person) in the query
(with alias names) with different types of joins. Firstly, just the one
alias (Person_Sib) joined by the IDFather field in each table (I have left
out IDMother for simplicity). The Person table in the query is

intended
to

be the record in the main form, and the Person_Sib alias is intended

to
find

all the records with the same IDFather. However, in this case, Person_Sib
just seems to track Person -- ie, Person_Sib returns only the same (single)
record as Person.

So I have tried a different tack. I inserted a second alias of Person
(Person_Father) between the two original tables in the query. In this case,
Person.IDFather is joined to Person_Father.IDPerson (the autonum

record
ID)

which is joined to Person_Sib.IDFather. At this point I got confused over
what sort of joins to use. Using INNER joins for both (which I am

sure

is resort

records

in

form).

I

Then

I how
can on
the some
sort

 

[Lyn]

Thanks again, Allen. This has given me some good debugging tools.

I did as you suggested, all steps, but without any improvement.

However, I did discover the main problem. Rather than continually update
the same subform and same query, I had created new versions of each. In the
end I had about eight versions of the subform and a similar number of
queries. Updating the query version of a form or subform is easy -- you
just update the Record Source property. But I could not find any analogue
of this for updating the subform version in the Form properties. I
suspected that I might have had the wrong subform version configured in the
main form. The only way I could find to fix this was to delete the current
subform and to recreate it from the Toolbox so that I could get into the
Subform Wizard. Is there any other way to invoke the Subform Wizard?

Anyway, after deleting and recreating the subform in the tab control page of
the main form, the error went away.

I now get data in the subform, but it is always only the same (single)
Person record as in the main form. That is, if I have a number of brothers
and sisters, all with the same IDFather, only my own record is displayed in
the subform. Which I eventually want to suppress, leaving only brothers and
sisters. It seems that instead of the subforms Record Source being the
whole of the Person table, it is being restricted to the one record already
selected by the main form. I had expected the VBA effectively to create a
new recordset (I have successfully used such recordsets in this manner
elsewhere in the main form VBA). How can I make the VBA for the subform
create a new Record Source based on the WHOLE of the Person table, rather
than the single record already selected by the main form?

I feel that I am getting closer to the solution, there is just one piece of
the puzzle still missing.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Hi Lyn.

To debug this, ask Access to print mySQL out to the immediate window:
mySQL = "SELECT ...
Debug.Print mySQL
Me.[sfmSibs].Form...

Now try it. Open the Immediate window (Ctrl+G). Access will have printed the
faulty SQL statement there. Copy it to clipboard. Then create a new query,
switch it to SQL View (View menu), and paste in the faulty SQL string. This
should help you to see what's wrong, and you will see how to fix the
assigment to mySQL.

The pipe character is a place holder for the field name. It appears that you
are getting the error message without the correct name being inserted into
the place holder. Ultimately it means that Access can't make sense of the
SQL statement. For example, if IDFather is actually a Text field (not a
Number field), then the SQL statement needs exta quote marks:
"WHERE Person.IDFather = """ & Me![IDFather] & """;"

Another cause of the error is Name AutoCorrect incorrectly tracking the
field name. Uncheck the boxes under Tools | Options | General | Name
AutoCorrect, and then compact the database (Tools | Database Utilities).

You're on the right track, so it is worth continuing to debug this. Do
include the trailing semicolon in the sql statement.

It would be possible to use the Change event of the tab control (not the
Click event of the page) rather than the Current event of the main form. The
problem with that approach is that it leaves the wrong data showing in the
subform when you change record in the main form, until you move to a
different tab and move back to the one you want again.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
I have tried your suggestion and variations of it, but no luck. After a lot
of trial and error, I have resorted to using VBA code similar to what you
provided in your previous. I have simplified the requirements to the bare
minimum, just to get something that works, then I can build it up again.

I now have a form containing a subform (sfmSibs) in a tab control. I have
removed any query from the subform's Record Source.

In the Current event for the main form, which I already use to populate some
unbound controls on the main form, I have added the following code:

Dim mySQL As String

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.SurnameBirth, Person.FirstName, " & _
"Person.DOB, Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & ";"
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL
End If

When I run this, if Me![IDFather] is null or zero, of course it works (blank
form as expected). However, any record with a non-zero Me![IDFather] gives
this error:

Run-time error '2465':
Microsoft Office Access can't find the field "|"
referred to in your expression.

Not very helpful, as I don't have "|" anywhere in the expression. (Once
when I mistyped a word, this error message displayed the word in error, but
not this time.)

When I click Debug, the following line is highlighted:

Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

I presume that the problem is somewhere in the mySQL string. I have tried
it with and without the terminating semicolon ";" (VBA often seems to insert
that for you), but no effect.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this when the field in error is quoted as "|"
?!?!

A related question: instead of doing this in the Current event of the main
form, could I do it in the On Click event of the tab control Page? So that
the subform is not populated unless the relevant tab is clicked. Just
trying to learn as much as I can from this.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Allen Browne]

Good: you are making progress with debugging.

To change which form gets loaded into your subform control without running
the wizard, you could changethe SourceObject of the subform control.

To help you get the desired SQL statement, create a new query and enter some
dummy values for the person fields. If you have multiple copies of the
Person table, use an alias (properties box) to help assign a meaningful
name. When the query is working the way you need, switch it to SQL View
(View menu), and you have a sample of the SQL string you need to create.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Thanks again, Allen. This has given me some good debugging tools.

I did as you suggested, all steps, but without any improvement.

However, I did discover the main problem. Rather than continually update
the same subform and same query, I had created new versions of each. In the
end I had about eight versions of the subform and a similar number of
queries. Updating the query version of a form or subform is easy -- you
just update the Record Source property. But I could not find any analogue
of this for updating the subform version in the Form properties. I
suspected that I might have had the wrong subform version configured in the
main form. The only way I could find to fix this was to delete the current
subform and to recreate it from the Toolbox so that I could get into the
Subform Wizard. Is there any other way to invoke the Subform Wizard?

Anyway, after deleting and recreating the subform in the tab control page of
the main form, the error went away.

I now get data in the subform, but it is always only the same (single)
Person record as in the main form. That is, if I have a number of brothers
and sisters, all with the same IDFather, only my own record is displayed in
the subform. Which I eventually want to suppress, leaving only brothers and
sisters. It seems that instead of the subforms Record Source being the
whole of the Person table, it is being restricted to the one record already
selected by the main form. I had expected the VBA effectively to create a
new recordset (I have successfully used such recordsets in this manner
elsewhere in the main form VBA). How can I make the VBA for the subform
create a new Record Source based on the WHOLE of the Person table, rather
than the single record already selected by the main form?

I feel that I am getting closer to the solution, there is just one piece of
the puzzle still missing.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Hi Lyn.

To debug this, ask Access to print mySQL out to the immediate window:
mySQL = "SELECT ...
Debug.Print mySQL
Me.[sfmSibs].Form...

Now try it. Open the Immediate window (Ctrl+G). Access will have printed the
faulty SQL statement there. Copy it to clipboard. Then create a new query,
switch it to SQL View (View menu), and paste in the faulty SQL string. This
should help you to see what's wrong, and you will see how to fix the
assigment to mySQL.

The pipe character is a place holder for the field name. It appears that you
are getting the error message without the correct name being inserted into
the place holder. Ultimately it means that Access can't make sense of the
SQL statement. For example, if IDFather is actually a Text field (not a
Number field), then the SQL statement needs exta quote marks:
"WHERE Person.IDFather = """ & Me![IDFather] & """;"

Another cause of the error is Name AutoCorrect incorrectly tracking the
field name. Uncheck the boxes under Tools | Options | General | Name
AutoCorrect, and then compact the database (Tools | Database Utilities).

You're on the right track, so it is worth continuing to debug this. Do
include the trailing semicolon in the sql statement.

It would be possible to use the Change event of the tab control (not the
Click event of the page) rather than the Current event of the main form. The
problem with that approach is that it leaves the wrong data showing in the
subform when you change record in the main form, until you move to a
different tab and move back to the one you want again.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
I have tried your suggestion and variations of it, but no luck. After

a
lot

of trial and error, I have resorted to using VBA code similar to what you
provided in your previous. I have simplified the requirements to the bare
minimum, just to get something that works, then I can build it up again.

I now have a form containing a subform (sfmSibs) in a tab control. I have
removed any query from the subform's Record Source.

In the Current event for the main form, which I already use to

populate
some

unbound controls on the main form, I have added the following code:

Dim mySQL As String

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.SurnameBirth, Person.FirstName, " & _
"Person.DOB, Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & ";"
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL
End If

When I run this, if Me![IDFather] is null or zero, of course it works (blank
form as expected). However, any record with a non-zero Me![IDFather] gives
this error:

Run-time error '2465':
Microsoft Office Access can't find the field "|"
referred to in your expression.

Not very helpful, as I don't have "|" anywhere in the expression. (Once
when I mistyped a word, this error message displayed the word in

error,
but

not this time.)

When I click Debug, the following line is highlighted:

Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

I presume that the problem is somewhere in the mySQL string. I have tried
it with and without the terminating semicolon ";" (VBA often seems to insert
that for you), but no effect.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this when the field in error is quoted

as
"|"

?!?!

A related question: instead of doing this in the Current event of the main
form, could I do it in the On Click event of the tab control Page? So that
the subform is not populated unless the relevant tab is clicked. Just
trying to learn as much as I can from this.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Lyn]

Allen,
Thanks again for the help and encouragement. And patience!

I did not fully understand your previous suggestions. I have had queries
and subforms with the IDFather value hardcoded working from the beginning.
The problem has been in getting the query and subform integrated into the
main form, using a value in the main form in place of the hardcoded value,
and using the full table to select from instead of just the current record
in the main form. I tried creating an alias of the table in the SQL by
using the syntax:

SELECT * FROM table AS alias WHERE alias.xxx = ...

But this gave me the same result as not using the alias. That is, it just
seems to give the record already selected in the main form a new table name.
What is needed is the alias to reflect a new copy of the whole table. Maybe
I am not applying the alias properly, although this was all I could find in
the Help file.

I could not find a SourceObject property in the subform control. Only
RecordSource, which points to the dummy query used when first opening the
form.

However, I do have this bit of code working, using the Immediate Pane as a
pseudo subform:

Dim Conn As ADODB.Connection
Set Conn = CurrentProject.Connection
Dim RS As New ADODB.Recordset

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.Surname, Person.FirstName, Person.DOB,
Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & _
" AND Person.IDPerson <> " & Me![IDPerson] & ";"
RS.Open mySQL, Conn, adOpenStatic
If RS.RecordCount > 0 Then
RS.MoveFirst
While Not RS.EOF
Debug.Print "Name: " & RS!Surname & " " & RS!FirstName
RS.MoveNext
Wend
End If
RS.Close
End If

This displays all the person's siblings in the debug pane -- ie, all records
in the Person table with the same IDFather value, excluding the record
currently displayed in the main form.

All I have to do now is find out how to display the same results in the
subform instead of the debug window. A simple task! (You would think?) So
what am I still doing wrong?

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Good: you are making progress with debugging.

To change which form gets loaded into your subform control without running
the wizard, you could changethe SourceObject of the subform control.

To help you get the desired SQL statement, create a new query and enter some
dummy values for the person fields. If you have multiple copies of the
Person table, use an alias (properties box) to help assign a meaningful
name. When the query is working the way you need, switch it to SQL View
(View menu), and you have a sample of the SQL string you need to create.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Thanks again, Allen. This has given me some good debugging tools.

I did as you suggested, all steps, but without any improvement.

However, I did discover the main problem. Rather than continually update
the same subform and same query, I had created new versions of each. In the
end I had about eight versions of the subform and a similar number of
queries. Updating the query version of a form or subform is easy -- you
just update the Record Source property. But I could not find any analogue
of this for updating the subform version in the Form properties. I
suspected that I might have had the wrong subform version configured in the
main form. The only way I could find to fix this was to delete the current
subform and to recreate it from the Toolbox so that I could get into the
Subform Wizard. Is there any other way to invoke the Subform Wizard?

Anyway, after deleting and recreating the subform in the tab control

page

of
the main form, the error went away.

I now get data in the subform, but it is always only the same (single)
Person record as in the main form. That is, if I have a number of brothers
and sisters, all with the same IDFather, only my own record is displayed in
the subform. Which I eventually want to suppress, leaving only brothers and
sisters. It seems that instead of the subforms Record Source being the
whole of the Person table, it is being restricted to the one record already
selected by the main form. I had expected the VBA effectively to create a
new recordset (I have successfully used such recordsets in this manner
elsewhere in the main form VBA). How can I make the VBA for the subform
create a new Record Source based on the WHOLE of the Person table, rather
than the single record already selected by the main form?

I feel that I am getting closer to the solution, there is just one piece of
the puzzle still missing.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Hi Lyn.

To debug this, ask Access to print mySQL out to the immediate window:
mySQL = "SELECT ...
Debug.Print mySQL
Me.[sfmSibs].Form...

Now try it. Open the Immediate window (Ctrl+G). Access will have

printed
the

faulty SQL statement there. Copy it to clipboard. Then create a new query,
switch it to SQL View (View menu), and paste in the faulty SQL string. This
should help you to see what's wrong, and you will see how to fix the
assigment to mySQL.

The pipe character is a place holder for the field name. It appears

that
you

are getting the error message without the correct name being inserted into
the place holder. Ultimately it means that Access can't make sense of the
SQL statement. For example, if IDFather is actually a Text field (not a
Number field), then the SQL statement needs exta quote marks:
"WHERE Person.IDFather = """ & Me![IDFather] & """;"

Another cause of the error is Name AutoCorrect incorrectly tracking the
field name. Uncheck the boxes under Tools | Options | General | Name
AutoCorrect, and then compact the database (Tools | Database Utilities).

You're on the right track, so it is worth continuing to debug this. Do
include the trailing semicolon in the sql statement.

It would be possible to use the Change event of the tab control (not the
Click event of the page) rather than the Current event of the main

form.
The

problem with that approach is that it leaves the wrong data showing in the
subform when you change record in the main form, until you move to a
different tab and move back to the one you want again.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
I have tried your suggestion and variations of it, but no luck.

After

a

lot
of trial and error, I have resorted to using VBA code similar to

what
you

provided in your previous. I have simplified the requirements to

the
bare

minimum, just to get something that works, then I can build it up again.

I now have a form containing a subform (sfmSibs) in a tab control.

I
have

removed any query from the subform's Record Source.

In the Current event for the main form, which I already use to populate
some
unbound controls on the main form, I have added the following code:

Dim mySQL As String

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.SurnameBirth, Person.FirstName, "

&

_

"Person.DOB, Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & ";"
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL
End If

When I run this, if Me![IDFather] is null or zero, of course it works
(blank
form as expected). However, any record with a non-zero Me![IDFather]
gives
this error:

Run-time error '2465':
Microsoft Office Access can't find the field "|"
referred to in your expression.

Not very helpful, as I don't have "|" anywhere in the expression. (Once
when I mistyped a word, this error message displayed the word in error,
but
not this time.)

When I click Debug, the following line is highlighted:

Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

I presume that the problem is somewhere in the mySQL string. I have tried
it with and without the terminating semicolon ";" (VBA often seems to
insert
that for you), but no effect.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this when the field in error is quoted as
"|"
?!?!

A related question: instead of doing this in the Current event of

the
main

form, could I do it in the On Click event of the tab control Page? So
that
the subform is not populated unless the relevant tab is clicked. Just
trying to learn as much as I can from this.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Allen Browne]

Assuming that IDFather and IDPerson are text boxes in the main form, that
statement *should* work if you assign it to the RecordSource of the subform
in the Current event of the main form.

If you found a RecordSource property but not a SourceObject property, you
were looking at the form in the subform control, not the subform control
itself. Open the main form in design view. Right-click the edge of the
subform control, and choose Properties. SourceObject should be the first
item on the Data tab.

Hope that helps.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
Thanks again for the help and encouragement. And patience!

I did not fully understand your previous suggestions. I have had queries
and subforms with the IDFather value hardcoded working from the beginning.
The problem has been in getting the query and subform integrated into the
main form, using a value in the main form in place of the hardcoded value,
and using the full table to select from instead of just the current record
in the main form. I tried creating an alias of the table in the SQL by
using the syntax:

SELECT * FROM table AS alias WHERE alias.xxx = ...

But this gave me the same result as not using the alias. That is, it just
seems to give the record already selected in the main form a new table name.
What is needed is the alias to reflect a new copy of the whole table. Maybe
I am not applying the alias properly, although this was all I could find in
the Help file.

I could not find a SourceObject property in the subform control. Only
RecordSource, which points to the dummy query used when first opening the
form.

However, I do have this bit of code working, using the Immediate Pane as a
pseudo subform:

Dim Conn As ADODB.Connection
Set Conn = CurrentProject.Connection
Dim RS As New ADODB.Recordset

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.Surname, Person.FirstName, Person.DOB,
Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & _
" AND Person.IDPerson <> " & Me![IDPerson] & ";"
RS.Open mySQL, Conn, adOpenStatic
If RS.RecordCount > 0 Then
RS.MoveFirst
While Not RS.EOF
Debug.Print "Name: " & RS!Surname & " " & RS!FirstName
RS.MoveNext
Wend
End If
RS.Close
End If

This displays all the person's siblings in the debug pane -- ie, all records
in the Person table with the same IDFather value, excluding the record
currently displayed in the main form.

All I have to do now is find out how to display the same results in the
subform instead of the debug window. A simple task! (You would think?) So
what am I still doing wrong?

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Good: you are making progress with debugging.

To change which form gets loaded into your subform control without running
the wizard, you could changethe SourceObject of the subform control.

To help you get the desired SQL statement, create a new query and enter some
dummy values for the person fields. If you have multiple copies of the
Person table, use an alias (properties box) to help assign a meaningful
name. When the query is working the way you need, switch it to SQL View
(View menu), and you have a sample of the SQL string you need to create.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

In
the in
the page displayed
in brothers
and

create

a

new recordset (I have successfully used such recordsets in this manner
elsewhere in the main form VBA). How can I make the VBA for the subform
create a new Record Source based on the WHOLE of the Person table, rather
than the single record already selected by the main form?

I feel that I am getting closer to the solution, there is just one

piece
of

the puzzle still missing.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Hi Lyn.

To debug this, ask Access to print mySQL out to the immediate window:
mySQL = "SELECT ...
Debug.Print mySQL
Me.[sfmSibs].Form...

Now try it. Open the Immediate window (Ctrl+G). Access will have printed
the
faulty SQL statement there. Copy it to clipboard. Then create a new query,
switch it to SQL View (View menu), and paste in the faulty SQL string.
This
should help you to see what's wrong, and you will see how to fix the
assigment to mySQL.

The pipe character is a place holder for the field name. It appears that
you
are getting the error message without the correct name being

inserted
into

the place holder. Ultimately it means that Access can't make sense

of
the

SQL statement. For example, if IDFather is actually a Text field

(not

a

Number field), then the SQL statement needs exta quote marks:
"WHERE Person.IDFather = """ & Me![IDFather] & """;"

Another cause of the error is Name AutoCorrect incorrectly tracking the
field name. Uncheck the boxes under Tools | Options | General | Name
AutoCorrect, and then compact the database (Tools | Database Utilities).

You're on the right track, so it is worth continuing to debug this. Do
include the trailing semicolon in the sql statement.

It would be possible to use the Change event of the tab control (not the
Click event of the page) rather than the Current event of the main form.
The
problem with that approach is that it leaves the wrong data showing

in
the

subform when you change record in the main form, until you move to a
different tab and move back to the one you want again.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
I have tried your suggestion and variations of it, but no luck.

After

a
lot
of trial and error, I have resorted to using VBA code similar to what
you
provided in your previous. I have simplified the requirements to the
bare
minimum, just to get something that works, then I can build it up again.

I now have a form containing a subform (sfmSibs) in a tab control. I
have
removed any query from the subform's Record Source.

In the Current event for the main form, which I already use to populate
some
unbound controls on the main form, I have added the following code:

Dim mySQL As String

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.SurnameBirth, Person.FirstName,

"

&

_
"Person.DOB, Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & ";"
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL
End If

When I run this, if Me![IDFather] is null or zero, of course it works
(blank
form as expected). However, any record with a non-zero Me![IDFather]
gives
this error:

Run-time error '2465':
Microsoft Office Access can't find the field "|"
referred to in your expression.

Not very helpful, as I don't have "|" anywhere in the expression. (Once
when I mistyped a word, this error message displayed the word in error,
but
not this time.)

When I click Debug, the following line is highlighted:

Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

I presume that the problem is somewhere in the mySQL string. I have
tried
it with and without the terminating semicolon ";" (VBA often seems to
insert
that for you), but no effect.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this when the field in error is

quoted
as

"|"
?!?!

A related question: instead of doing this in the Current event of the
main
form, could I do it in the On Click event of the tab control Page? So
that
the subform is not populated unless the relevant tab is clicked. Just
trying to learn as much as I can from this.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Lyn]

Allen, thanks for the prompt response. With your guidance, I did find
Source Object -- thank you.

Re assigning "that statement" to the subform Record Source in the main form
Current event, did you mean the code I had defining the recordset, but using
"Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL" instead of the "RS.Open ..."? Or
did you mean use it with the SQL statement "SELECT * FROM table AS alias
WHERE alias.xxx = ..."?

I am pretty sure that I tried the former before, but I am so confused with
all the things I tried that I am prepared to try it again.

--
Cheers,
Lyn.

Assuming that IDFather and IDPerson are text boxes in the main form, that
statement *should* work if you assign it to the RecordSource of the subform
in the Current event of the main form.

If you found a RecordSource property but not a SourceObject property, you
were looking at the form in the subform control, not the subform control
itself. Open the main form in design view. Right-click the edge of the
subform control, and choose Properties. SourceObject should be the first
item on the Data tab.

Hope that helps.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen,
Thanks again for the help and encouragement. And patience!

I did not fully understand your previous suggestions. I have had queries
and subforms with the IDFather value hardcoded working from the beginning.
The problem has been in getting the query and subform integrated into the
main form, using a value in the main form in place of the hardcoded value,
and using the full table to select from instead of just the current record
in the main form. I tried creating an alias of the table in the SQL by
using the syntax:

SELECT * FROM table AS alias WHERE alias.xxx = ...

But this gave me the same result as not using the alias. That is, it just
seems to give the record already selected in the main form a new table name.
What is needed is the alias to reflect a new copy of the whole table. Maybe
I am not applying the alias properly, although this was all I could find in
the Help file.

I could not find a SourceObject property in the subform control. Only
RecordSource, which points to the dummy query used when first opening the
form.

However, I do have this bit of code working, using the Immediate Pane as a
pseudo subform:

Dim Conn As ADODB.Connection
Set Conn = CurrentProject.Connection
Dim RS As New ADODB.Recordset

If Not IsNull(Me![IDFather]) And Me![IDFather] <> 0 Then
mySQL = "SELECT Person.Surname, Person.FirstName, Person.DOB,
Person.Sex, " & _
"Person.IDPerson FROM Person " & _
"WHERE Person.IDFather = " & Me![IDFather] & _
" AND Person.IDPerson <> " & Me![IDPerson] & ";"
RS.Open mySQL, Conn, adOpenStatic
If RS.RecordCount > 0 Then
RS.MoveFirst
While Not RS.EOF
Debug.Print "Name: " & RS!Surname & " " & RS!FirstName
RS.MoveNext
Wend
End If
RS.Close
End If

This displays all the person's siblings in the debug pane -- ie, all records
in the Person table with the same IDFather value, excluding the record
currently displayed in the main form.

All I have to do now is find out how to display the same results in the
subform instead of the debug window. A simple task! (You would think?) So
what am I still doing wrong?

 

[Allen Browne]

Yes. Now you have a working query statement, you should be able to do this:
Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL

 

[Allen Browne]

Hi Lyn

Just back, and have had a chance to try what you are doing. The problem you
are seeing is a bug in Access.

Although you have saved the form with *nothing* in the
LinkMasterFields/LinkChildFields of your subform, Access is WRONGLY
assigning values to these properties when you assign the RecordSource of the
subform. The result is that the only subform record that can match your main
form record is itself! This is completely the wrong result for what you want
(i.e. all the *other* siblings except the person themself).

Even if you clear the automatic assignment to these properties, Access will
create the assignment again as soon as you move record in the main form.

There is a sample of this bug at this address:
http://allenbrowne.com/BadSubform.zip
I think you will find that this is exactly the behaviour you have been
struggling with.

You can work around the behaviour by explicitly reassigning an empty string
to the subform's LinkMasterFields and LinkChildFields properties in the main
form's Current event, after you assign the RecordSource to the subform. It's
an extremely inelegant workaround, but it does appear to let you have the
sibblings in your subform.

Looks like another Access bug that needs to be written up.


--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Allen, thanks for the prompt response. With your guidance, I did find
Source Object -- thank you.

Re assigning "that statement" to the subform Record Source in the main form
Current event, did you mean the code I had defining the recordset, but using
"Me.[sfmSibs].Form.RecordSource = mySQL" instead of the "RS.Open ..."? Or
did you mean use it with the SQL statement "SELECT * FROM table AS alias
WHERE alias.xxx = ..."?

I am pretty sure that I tried the former before, but I am so confused with
all the things I tried that I am prepared to try it again.