377
CHAPTER
VBA Programming
Fundamentals
IN THIS CHAPTER
Working with VBA
Reviewing VBA terminology
Understanding VBA code
basics
Moving from macros to VBA
Writing VBA code
Adding branching constructs
Understanding objects and
collections
Understanding developer
options
M
ost Access developers use macros now and then. Although macros
provide a quick and easy way to automate an application, writing
Visual Basic for applications (VBA) modules is the best way to cre-
ate applications. VBA provides data access, looping and branching, and other
features that macros simply don’t support — or at least don’t support with
the flexibility most developers want. In this chapter, you learn how to use
VBA to extend the power and usefulness of your applications.
On the CD-ROM
Use the database file Chapter10.accdb in this chapter.
Note
Although many readers of this book are experienced Access developers and
are comfortable working with VBA, this chapter and the other chapters in this
part of the book assume that you have no experience with VBA. I include these
chapters to provide you with a firm foundation for many of the techniques I
discuss in later chapters. As you’ll see in Part III and beyond, many advanced
Access techniques simply can’t be implemented without the use of VBA code.