XL to ACCESS crossover

[mark kubicki]

my current office works with Excel (in more of a database fashion than a
spreadsheet); and I have written a fair amount of code for our specific
needs;

I will be changing jobs to an office which works in ACCESS (this is odd, as
the 2 firms used to be the same office till a nasty split about a year
ago... anyhow, I digress)

I'm anticipating that I will want to again write code...

Will the cross-over between the 2 softwares annoy me to no end, be like
learning a new vocabulary (of the same language), or be relatively seamless?
(just curious)

Are there any site or publications that would assist the transition? (else,
I'll just punt)

-mark

 

[Ken Snell \(MVP\)]

I do VBA in both EXCEL and ACCESS. There are differences in how they work --
EXCEL has more "built-in" functions that are useful for browsing to
files/folders, ACCESS has functions to deal with Null values, the object
model in EXCEL is very robust compared to ACCESS, etc.

You may find some minor annoyances in going between the two, but I've not
found it to be a major problem. If you understand the VBA language in EXCEL,
you'll be able to do well with VBA in ACCESS.

 

[Guest]

Actually, you are in a very good situation. Since you are familiar with VBA
and, I assume, the Excel Object Model, you have a head start. Certainly,
there are some differences; however, you should be able to relate your
experience to the Access environment. In addition, you will be able to use
automation to use Excel from Access should the need arise.

Go to your favorite technical book store and find a book on Access that
looks right to you. By that, I mean one that make sense to you.

Also, continue to read and post to this site. You would not believe how
much I have learned out here in the last year. I thought I was pretty good
until I found this site. Since then, I have learned things I didn't even
know existed a year ago.

 

[John Vinson]

On Tue, 6 Dec 2005 11:49:59 -0500, "mark kubicki"

As Ken and Klatuu say, the differences in the VBA code will be fairly
minor. However, the difference in logic and in the structure of your
data may be substantially greater. A spreadsheet and a relational
database table may *look* similar but of course they are very
different! A lot of what you would do in cell expressions in Excel
must be done in a different manner in Access; and expressions such as
VLookUp() must often be totally rethought in terms of table Queries
rather than code.

But if you're using Excel as a database engine - you're moving in the
right direction. Excel's an excellent spreadsheet, but it's not really
a database; "you can drive nails with a crescent wrench, but that
doesn't make it a hammer"!

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[Guest]

A man who owns only a hammer sees all problems as nails.

 

[John Vinson]

A man who owns only a hammer sees all problems as nails.

"If I had a hammer... I'd hammer in the morning..."

<g>

(showing my age)

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[John Spencer]

Yep! Noticed you stopped hammering in the morning and didn't keep on for
the rest of the day. <VBG>

Now, when you really get old, you'll complain about all that noise in the
morning.