Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 4: Selecting Data with Queries .......................................................................................

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FIGURE 4.1

A typical three-table select query

After you create and run a query, Microsoft Access retrieves and displays the requested records as a

datasheet. This set of records returned by a query is called a recordset. As you’ve seen in Chapters 1

and 2, a datasheet looks just like a spreadsheet, with rows of records and columns of data. The

Datasheet view of the recordset can display many records simultaneously.

You can easily filter information from a single table using the Search and Filter capabilities of a

table’s Datasheet view (Filter by Selection and Filter by Form).

Cross-Reference
I discuss datasheets in detail in Chapter 6.

Clicking the Datasheet View button on the ribbon runs the query and returns the records shown in

Figure 4.2. This query is relatively easy to design when you understand how to use the Access

query designer. This simple query has many elements that demonstrate the power of the Access

query engine: sorting a result set of records, specifying multiple criteria, and even using a complex

Or condition in one of those fields.

You can build very complex queries using the Access query designer. Suppose, for example, that

you want to send a notice to all previous buyers of multiple products in the past year. This type of

query requires getting information from four tables: tblCustomers, tblSales, tblSalesLi-

neItems, and tblProducts. The majority of the information you need is in tblCustomers

and tblProducts.