Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 14: Debugging Your Access Applications

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In Figure 14.19, the break has occurred and I’ve clicked on the Step Into button (or pressed F8).

The Step Into button executes the next statement in the program’s flow of execution. In this case,

the SQL statement is composed and assigned to sSQL. If I wanted to view the value of sSQL at this

point, I could flip to the Immediate window (Ctrl+G) and use ?sSQL to print its value in the

Immediate window. I could also have a watch set on sSQL and view its value in the Watch window

(described in the “Setting watches with the Watches window” section, later in this chapter).

FIGURE 14.19

Step Into executes one line at a time.

Notice the execution pointer (a yellow arrow) in the Margin Indicator bar pointing at the last line

of the SQL statement. This arrow tells you where execution is actually stopped. The line pointed to

by the arrow has not yet executed, so any action performed in the statement has not occurred.

Consecutive clicks on the Step Into button (or pressing F8) walks through the code one statement

at a time. If a statement includes a call to a child procedure, you’ll be taken to that procedure and

walked through it. If you want, you can use the Step Over button (or press Shift+F8) to step

“through” the child routine. If you’ve previously debugged the child routine and you’re sure it con-

tains no errors, there is no reason to walk through its code. The code in the called routine is actu-

ally executed when you click on the Step Over button, changing any variables involved.

When you’re satisfied that you don’t need to continue walking through the code in the child pro-

cedure, click on the Step Out button (or press Ctrl+F8) to complete the procedure. The Step Out

button is handy if you’ve stepped into a called routine and you’re sure there’s nothing interesting

going on in it.

One very nice feature in the Access VBA window is the Auto Data Tips option in the Modules tab

in the Options dialog box. With this option selected, you’re able to view the value of any variable

in a tooltip-like window by hovering the mouse pointer over the variable’s name in the module

window (see Figure 14.20).