"." vs "!" in forms, subforms, controls, etc 1

[BigTeeJay]

Greetings,
Along the lines of FAQ181-447 (which I am not able to understand, the poor guys post appears to have been mangled in the process)... I am trying to figure out when it is appropriate to use "." vs "!".

For example if referencing a control on the current form, you could do Me.ControlName, or it seems you can do Me!ControlName, or sometimes you use Forms.formname, and other times Forms!Form_Formname, or is it Forms!Formname!?!?!

Does anyone know of a document (or could share a rules of thumb) that would help clarify this?

Regards,
Tj

PS: I accidently posted this to the "MS Access: Other" board first, I had two windows open, an didnt realize I was posting it there until it was too late..,

 

[scriverb]

This should make you happy. A cheat sheet. Check out this great link:

http://www.mvps.org/access/forms/frm0031.htm

Let me know if you need more. Bob Scriver

 

[SoloDroid]

Hello Tj,
The "." operator is used when you are accessing a property, or method of an object. The "!" is used to access objects in a collection i.e. the Forms, Tables, QueryDefs, or even a Recordset's fields collection. You will find that Access will often be forgiving in the missuse of these operators, but try using the "." operator with a Recordset to access a field (objRSet.fldLastName instead of objRSet!fldLastName) and you will see that you won't get too far.
Good Luck, Robert
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Professional, affordable, Access database solutions and assistance

http://www.SoloDroid.com

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[SoloDroid]

Hello all,
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding as to the use of the bang (!) operator :-(.

Please look at the following:

http://www.cuyamaca.net/john.gerstenberg/CIS280/CIS280Handouts.asp

Or to be exact:

http://www.cuyamaca.net/john.gerstenberg/CIS280/Handouts/BangOperator.doc

This should clear up any confusion. If not check out:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;129287

Robert
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Professional, affordable, Access database solutions and assistance

http://www.SoloDroid.com

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

 

[vbajock]

I always thought the short hand rule of thumb was if you created the object, use !, Otherwise use "." Always worked for me.

 

[SoloDroid]

Yes and no, the objects that you are creating are being added to a collection... whether it is a form that is going into the Forms collections or a text box that is going into a form's controls collection. It's still a collection of objects. Robert
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Professional, affordable, Access database solutions and assistance

http://www.SoloDroid.com

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

 

[BigTeeJay]

Thank you all, that was more detailed/helpful that I imagined My sincerest aplogies for the cross post (I wish you could delete/move your posts... oh well).

After readin SoloDroid's post, his seems to have the most technical info (something to keep in mind, or keep bookmarked for reference).

But I agree that WildHare's post should work well as a good rule of thumb (if it somehow fails you, you have SoloDroid's reference info).

If no one else wants to, I will create a FAQ for this using you guys posts (and names of course)... I wouldnt know how else to give you credit (other than putting your nick/handle in).

Regards,
Tj