ACC: How to Filter a Report from a Pop-Up Form

MORE INFORMATION

The technique involves creating a pop-up form and a report in the sample database Northwind. The form enables you to choose which fields and values to use for filtering a report in Print Preview.

Creating the Report

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Start the Report Wizard and create a report based on the Customers table.
3. In the "Which fields do you want on your report" box, select the following fields, and then click Next:
   

          CompanyName
          ContactName
          City
          Region
          Country
   						

4. In the "Do you want to add any grouping levels?" box, click Next.
5. In the "What sort order do you want for your records?" box, click Next.
6. In the "How would you like to layout your report?" box, click Tabular, and then click Next.
7. In the "What style would you like?" box, click Next.
8. In the "What title do you want?" box, enter rptCustomers. Click "Modify the report's design," and then click Finish.
9. In Design view, display the report's property sheet and set the FilterOn property to Yes.
10. Save and close the report.

Creating the Pop-up Form

1. Create a new form not based on any table or query in Design view with the following form properties:
   

         Form: frmFilter
         ---------------------
         ScrollBars: Neither
         RecordSelectors: No
         NavigationButtons: No
         PopUp: Yes
         BorderStyle: Thin
         MinMaxButtons: None
         Width: 2.5"
   						

2. Set the form's OnOpen property to the following event procedure:
   

         Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)
            DoCmd.OpenReport "rptCustomers", A_PREVIEW 'Open Customers report.
            DoCmd.Maximize  'Maximize the report window.
         End Sub
   						

3. Set the form's OnClose property to the following event procedure:
   

         Private Sub Form_Close()
            DoCmd.Close acReport, "rptCustomers" 'Close the Customers report.
            DoCmd.Restore  'Restore the window size
         End Sub
   						

4. Add the following five combo boxes in the detail section. Place them on the form vertically, one below each other:
   
   NOTE: In the SQL expressions below, 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 expression.
   

         Combo box:
         Name: Filter1
         Tag: CompanyName
         RowSource: Select Distinct [CompanyName] from Customers Order _
                    By [CompanyName];
         Width: 1.5"
   
         Combo Box:
         Name: Filter2
         Tag: ContactName
         RowSource: Select Distinct [ContactName] from Customers Order _
                    By [ContactName];
         Width: 1.5"
   
         Combo Box:
         Name: Filter3
         Tag: City
         RowSource: Select Distinct [City] from Customers Order By [City];
         Width: 1.5"
   
         Combo Box:
         Name: Filter4
         Tag: Region
         RowSource: SELECT DISTINCT Customers.Region FROM Customers _
                        WHERE(((Customers.Region) Is Not Null)) ORDER BY _
                        Customers.Region;
         Width: 1.5"
   
         Combo Box:
         Name: Filter5
         Tag: Country
         RowSource: Select Distinct [Country] from Customers Order _
                        By [Country];
         Width: 1.5"
   						

5. Add the following command button to your form, which will enable you to reset the values in the form's combo boxes and check boxes:
   

         Command button:
         Name: Clear
         Caption: Clear
         OnClick: [Event procedure]
   
         Set the OnClick [Event procedure] as follows:
   						

   
   

         Private Sub Clear_Click()
            Dim  intCounter as Integer
            For intCounter = 1 To 5
            Me("Filter" & intCounter) = ""
            Next
         End Sub
   						

6. Add a second command button to your form:
   

         Command Button:
         Name: Set Filter
         Caption: Set Filter
         OnClick: [Event procedure]
   
         Set the OnClick [Event procedure] as follows:
   						

   
   

   Private Sub Set_Filter_Click()
      Dim strSQL as String, intCounter as Integer
      ' Build SQL String.
      For intCounter = 1 To 5
         If Me("Filter" & intCounter) <> "" Then
   
            strSQL = strSQL & "[" & Me("Filter" & intCounter).Tag & "] " _
              & " = " & Chr(34) & Me("Filter" & intCounter) & Chr(34) &  _
              " And  "
             End If
           Next
   
           If strSQL <> "" Then
           ' Strip Last " And ".
             strSQL = Left(strSQL, (Len(strSQL) - 5))
             ' Set the Filter property.
             Reports![rptCustomers].Filter = strSQL
             Reports![rptCustomers].FilterOn = True
           End If
   End Sub
   						

7. Add a third command button to your form:
   

         Command Button:
         Name: Close
         Caption: Close
         OnClick: [Event procedure]
   
         Set the OnClick [Event procedure] as follows:
   						

   
   

         Private Sub Close_Click()
            DoCmd.Close acForm, Me.Form.Name
         End Sub
   						

8. Close and save the form as frmFilter.

Filtering the Report

1. Open the frmFilter pop-up form in Form view. Note that the rptCustomers report opens in Print Preview behind the form and displays all records in the Customers table.
2. In the Region combo box, select "BC," and then click the Set Filter button. You should see only the records that contain "BC" in the Region field.
3. Click Clear to reset the report's Filter property.

NOTE: To experiment with various combinations of data, you can select an item from one or more combo boxes and click the Set Filter button. When you are ready to select different items, first click the Clear button to reset the report's Filter property before making new choices in the combo boxes.