Buti Bori said:
None of the books available show light on what means by the term "Select"
query in Access. We always need to "select" from various options in all
queries. Then why a basic query is called a Select query? Thanks
Actually, if you look at the menu bar while in the query designer, you see
menu called "query".
Try selecting that menu, you notice a list of options:
select query
crosstab query
Make table query
update query
append query
delete query.
So, not queries you create are going to select data. Some quires will update
data, and some will delete date etc......
So, the term "select" does not mean select options, but means are we going
to grab, or "select" data form a table. As mentioned, a query in ms-access
does not have to select data..but can do other things as the above list
shows.
For the most part, when we say a ms-access query, we are talking about a
select query, but there are times were it MOST certainly makes sense to
clarify what kind of query we are creating.
It really is all about the context of the question, or what kind of query
you need. When it is not important, we simply say a query, and we *likely*
mean an access "select" query. However, if we are talking about something
*other* then a select query, it good idea to point that out....
Another common term use to define a query is a "action" query vs that of a
"select" query.
The term "action" query again means a query that does NOT return data, but
modifies the data. So, the term "action" query either updates data, appends
data, or deletes data. In all of these cases, you are performing some sql
query, but it does NOT return data.
For example, you can only use "action" quires in code that executes sql.
eg:
currentdb.Execute "update tblCustomers " & _
" set city = 'New York' where city = 'N.Y.'"
The above is a legal action query. However, the following code fails in
ms-access
currentdb.execute "select * from tblCustomers"
The above does not work because ms-access has no idea *where* to put the
results of the above query (simply put, the ".execute" method ONLY WORKS for
action quires (all other types of quires *except* a select query).
So, "action" quires refers to several types of quires (ones that modify
data..but, does not return records.
A select query is a query that returns records.
