Power Search Simply

Here's a really cool and easy way to make a power search.

1. Create a form with textboxes for your search fields. They should have a default value "*" for now. The form doesn't need a data source.

2. Create a query on the data source you wish to search. For each field you want searchable change the Criteria to something like this....
[color blue]Like [Forms]![frmPowerSearch]![Criteria3][/color]
When you run this query it will be the results of your search. Best part is, the search criteria can have wildcards such as [color blue]search*[/color] (begins with) or [color blue]*search*[/color] (contains), others too I think.

Of course you can put the query as a subform of your search form and have a button that either requeries it or sets the data source (which requeries). such as...

[color blue]frmPowerSearchResults.Requery[/color]
or
[color blue][Forms]![frmPowerSearch]![frmPowerSearchResults].Form.RecordSource = "qryPowerSearch"[/color]

[color red]: ([/color]
One problem with this method of searching is that null values have bad effects on the ability to search a record. I think a null anywhere in the record causes it to get skipped. In the query you can just use an iif statement in the field: box (where the name of the column is usually displayed) like so....
[color blue]IIf(IsNull([tblCustomers].[Customer])=True," ",[tblCustomers].[Customer])[/color]
Do this for every field that could be null.

Of course there are lots of things you can do to make this search more robust.

Enjoy
leobaby