Customer Reviews

Beginning Access 2000 VBA

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a solid book, nicely written, and the authors have obviously put a lot of thought and good effort into it. However, in it's introduction, the authors advise that you don't really need to know anything about programming in order to understand the book. In my experience that's not correct. While a beginner can understand parts of the book, you soon get the feeling that you are in over your head. It gets into fairly complex code quite quickly. It would be a great book if you are taking a class or have a teacher to explain the parts that need clarification. But for a beginner like myself trying to learn VBA on my own, it's too much too soon. Another thing that this book (or any book) could do to help you learn is provide a lot of problems at the end of each chapter for you to try and apply what you learned, sort of the way we learned algebra in high school.

Evan Callahan's Book, Step By Step Microsoft Access VBA is a much more basic beginner's book. It takes you by the hand and gets you writing code quickly. It does not take you very far into VBA, but does get you going.

The next book I'd recommend is VBA Handbook by Susan Novalis. It's a much more gentle intro than is Sussman's book. In fact, after you learn Novalis' book you will probably be ready for Sussman's book.

I bougth this book and discovered that it was not for someone like me just learning Access VBA.

In fact I had to buy Access 2000 VBA Handbook by Susann Novalis (ISBN 0782123244) simply this book did not cut is for me as a beginner. If you are starting out and know little or nothing about Access VBA DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Instead I recommend Novalis.

With Novalis, you will learn to create forms, print to list box, sort records, create recordset, simple SQL and much more that can get you started on creating greate Access databases using VBA.

This is a great book that covers many important aspects of VBA and access programming. The title "Beginning" of this book, however, is a bit misleading, because the pace is probably too fast for people who are new to coding. The exercises at the end of each chapter usually require the readers to use new things not covered in the book, so most of the time, I would have to look at the answers first, and then try to understand how the problems are solved. Therefore I feel that the authors are trying to jam in as much information as they possibly can on the topics within limited space. Fortunately the explanations for the codes are well done, and the author stick to their promise that this is a book about the VBA, not 'How-to-use-access'. The authors stick with DAO all through the book and leave out ADO entirely. I agree with them on that decision, so that one can really get a good feel for DAO and not lose focus trying to learn 2 technologies at once. If you can go through this book and understand the concepts and details, I would recommend, as the next step, a developer's reference, such as Access 2000 Developers' Handbook from Sybex.

After developing in Access & SQL Server for a number of years, I was always intimidated by VB development and had made a conscious effort to develop "work-arounds" for my lack of hard-coding skill. However, my current project required that I take-over and inherit someone else's work. Imagine my horror when I discovered that the person who built the database I had to maintain had done so almost entirely in VBA (and didn't document a single word of code). Where were all the macros? Where had my happy place gone? I begrudgingly accepted the fact that I would have to learn VBA in order to fix this database and support it. Although I'm not quite through the book, I felt like it was written specifically for guys like me. You must know your Access and your basic theory of database, but if syntax and coding experience is what you need, this book is great. I plan on getting the "Professional" version by Wrox as well.

This book is an intermediate reference which I would NOT recommend to the absolute beginner. Get Evan Callahan's book of nearly the same title. THEN get this book because I have found it to be an invaluable reference. Great how-to examples for every common programming task. You WILL be a true Access geek when you get through this book. For graduation, treat yourself the Developer's Handbook. You'll actually understand what's in it.

I felt this book was written for me. I received it, turned to chapter 8, and there in front of me was a solution I had been searching for weeks. My relational database is now easily searchable for those inept at constructing queries. Yay!

The book's strongest feature is the many detailed examples that are clearly explained and progess in a logical order. The book also serves as a useful refresher for basic object-oriented concepts, and contains a CD with all of the code.

If you're new to SQL or wonder what "events" are, look for a simpler book. This book is definitely for those who understand basic SQL and relational database design, have designed customized forms/queries/reports, and want to take their Microsoft Access database to the next level.

I previously bought Access 97 VBA and recently ran into problems in Access 2000. After realizing that I was lost just enough to do damange to myself and my job, I bought this book. It explains the differences between ADO and DAO, which was the cause of most of my troubles, very well. As was the case with the 97 version, the examples clearly show how to do most of the things that I wanted to accomplish. This is listed as a beginning book but I think I'd recommend having some programming experience first. This is a nice companion to the 97 version or just a good place to start in on extending the functionality of Access 2000 with VBA.

Do you really want to learn code? Do you even know what DAO and ADO are? When you do get behind Forms into VBA do you know what all that syntax means? Are you writing your own Functions? Do you know what every line of this code means? If you answer 'no' to any of these questions, get this book. It is great! You'll learn the nuts and bolts of Access 2000 and VBA. You will have to apply yourself some. I now know what this code means because I wrote it (and dozens and dozens of more lines) and you can too! (the code got messed up by the review formatting)

Private Sub SaveThisRecord_Click() Dim db As Database Dim rec As Recordset Set db = CurrentDb() Set rec = db.OpenRecordset("tbljobhoursdetail") rec.AddNew rec!EmployeeID.Value = Me![Text2].Value rec("job#").Value = Me("txtjob#").Value rec!DateWorked = Me!txtDateWorked.Value rec.Update rec.Close End Sub

Although the authors were very clear in the beginning that they focused on DAO, it was not until I read 195 pages that I really understood what that meant. For other novices that may be reading this that don't know the difference between DAO and ADO: if you are making an Access (.mdb) file, get this book (because it uses DAO language); if you are making an Access Project (.adp) file, then this book does not emphasize the language you need (which is ADO).

Looking for a start in Access programming or a VBA reference that gives you the straight skinny in a readable format without oversimplifying the material? Look no further. Without a doubt, this book is the best introductory programming book I have ever read (and I've read quite a few). I've read some comments already about the lack of ADO information, but remember, this is a beginning-programming level book. ADO comes after you get a handle on code, structure, format, and terminology. All in all, I can't give enough praise to this book. A great reference all around. Wrox does it again!