Knowledge Base

ACC: "Undefined Function" Error Referencing Combo Box Column

Article ID: 141617

Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007

Microsoft Access 2.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Access 95 Standard Edition
Microsoft Access 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q141617

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Access, you may receive the following error message if you refer to the Column property of a combo box in a query's criteria row (query by form):

   Undefined function '[Forms]![FormName]![ComboBoxName].[Column]' in
   expression.

CAUSE

Microsoft Access tries to parse the criteria expression at the "(" (opening parenthesis). When doing so, Microsoft Access concludes that the unbroken string preceding the "." (period) (and returned within single quotation marks in the error message) is a user-defined function. Because Microsoft Access finds no such function in any of your modules, you receive the "Undefined function" message.

RESOLUTION

Wrap the entire reference as a text string inside an Eval() function. This tells Microsoft Access to consider the entire reference as a whole and not to attempt to parse it.

For example, to refer to the first (left-most) column of a combo box in the Criteria row of the QBE grid, use the following syntax.

   Eval("[Forms]![FormName]![ComboBoxName].[Column](0)")

Additional query words: QBF column property Eval

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb KB141617