ACC: How to Use DAO to Retrieve a Field's Description

MORE INFORMATION

1. Create a new module and enter the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:

         Option Explicit

2. Type or paste the following procedure.
   
   NOTE: In the following sample code, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this code in Access Basic.

         Function GetFieldDescription (ByVal MyTableName As String, _
         ByVal MyFieldName As String)
            Dim DB As Database
            Dim TD As TableDef
            Dim FLD As Field
   
            Set DB = DBEngine.Workspaces(0).Databases(0)
   
            On Error GoTo Err_GetFieldDescription
   
            Set TD = DB.TableDefs(MyTableName)
            Set FLD = TD.Fields(MyFieldName)
   
            GetFieldDescription = FLD.Properties("Description")
   
         Bye_GetFieldDescription:
            Exit Function
   
         Err_GetFieldDescription:
            Beep: MsgBox Error$, 48
            GetFieldDescription = Null
            Resume Bye_GetFieldDescription
   
         End Function
   						

3. To test this function in the sample database Northwind.mdb (or NWIND.MDB in version 2.0), click Debug Window on the View menu (or Immediate Window in version 2.0).
4. In the Debug Window (or Immediate window in version 2.0), type the following line, and then press ENTER:

   ? GetFieldDescription("Employees", "EmployeeID");

   NOTE: In Microsoft Access 2.0, there is a space in Employee ID field name.
   
   Note that the description for the EmployeeID field is returned.