ACC: How To Enumerate Selected Form Records

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Access 7.0 and 97 provide the SelTop and SelHeight properties to enable you to determine which records are selected in a continuous or Datasheet view form. You can use the SelTop property to determine which row is the first in the selection. You can use the SelHeight property to determine the number of rows in the current selection.

The following information describes how to use these properties to enumerate the list of selected records from

• a macro run from a toolbar or AutoKeys macro.
• code run from a command button in the header or footer section of the form.

The latter case presents some challenges and is a bit more difficult to accomplish. Suppose you want to place a command button in the header or footer section of a continuous form to enable your users to copy, move, or print a report against the selected set of records. When your user presses this button, the current selection of records disappears when the command button receives focus. Information later in this article demonstrates how to circumvent this behavior.

Enumerating Selected Records Using a Toolbar or AutoKeys Macro

The advantage to using a toolbar button or keyboard key to run your code is that the current selection of records will not be lost, simplifying the procedure:

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb and create a new module with the following procedure:
   

          Function DisplaySelectedCompanyNames()
             Dim i As Long
             Dim F As Form
             Dim RS As Recordset
   
             ' Get the form and its recordset.
             Set F = Forms![Customers1]
             Set RS = F.RecordsetClone
   
             ' Move to the first record in the recordset.
             RS.MoveFirst
   
             ' Move to the first selected record.
             RS.Move F.SelTop - 1
   
             ' Enumerate the list of selected records presenting
             ' the CompanyName field in a message box.
             For i = 1 To F.SelHeight
               MsgBox RS![CompanyName]
               RS.MoveNext
             Next i
   
          End Function
   						

2. Save the module with a unique name and close the module.
3. Create a new macro with the name AutoKeys as follows:
   

          Macro Name     Action
          ----------------------
          {F5}           RunCode
   
          AutoKeys Actions
          ------------------------------------------------
          RunCode
   						

   
   

             Function Name: =DisplaySelectedCompanyNames()
   						

4. On the Insert menu, click Form to open the New Form dialog box.
5. Select AutoForm: Tabular from the list of available wizards, and Customers from the "Choose the table or query where the object's data comes from" box. Click OK.
6. On the File menu, click Save and save the form with the default name, Customers1.
7. Using the right mouse button, click the toolbar and click Customize.
8. Do one of the following for your version of Microsoft Access:
   
   In Microsoft Access 97:
   

         In the Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab and select
         "All Macros." Under Commands, drag "AutoKeys.{F5}" from the Commands
         list to an empty space on the toolbar, and then click Close.
   						

   
   In Microsoft Access 7.0:
   

         In the Customize Toolbars dialog box, under Categories, select "All
         Macros." Under Objects, drag "AutoKeys.{F5}" from the Objects list to
         an empty space on the toolbar, and then click Close.
   						

9. Select a record or a set of records from the form using the record selector buttons on the left side of the continuous form. Press the F5 key or click the new toolbar button.
   
   Note that a message box appears for each selected record displaying the contents of the selected record's CompanyName field.

Enumerating Selected Records Using a Command Button

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 in the "How to Enumerate Selected Records Using a Toolbar or AutoKeys Macro" section above to create the module with the DisplaySelectedCompanyNames() procedure.
2. Open the module in Design view and add the following to the Declaration section:
   

          Dim MySelTop As Long
          Dim MySelHeight As Long
   
          Dim MySelForm As Form
          Dim fMouseDown As Integer
   						

3. Create the following two procedures:
   

          Function SelRecord(F As Form, MouseEvent As String)
             Select Case MouseEvent
                Case "Move"
                   ' Store the form and the form's Sel property settings
                   ' in the MySel variables ONLY if mouse down has not
                   ' occurred.
                   If fMouseDown = True Then Exit Function
                   Set MySelForm = F
                   MySelTop = F.SelTop
                   MySelHeight = F.SelHeight
   
                Case "Down"
                   ' Set flag indicating the mouse button has been pushed.
                   fMouseDown = True
                Case "Up"
                   ' Reset the flag for the next time around.
                   fMouseDown = False
             End Select
          End Function
   
          Public Sub SelRestore()
          Debug.Print "got into Restore"
             ' Restore the form's Sel property settings with the values
             ' stored in the MySel variables.
             MySelForm.SelTop = MySelTop
             MySelForm.SelHeight = MySelHeight
   
          End Sub
   						

4. Save and close the module.
5. Follow steps 4 - 6 in the "How to Enumerate Selected Records Using a Toolbar or AutoKeys Macro" section above to create the Customers1 form.
6. Open the Customers1 form in Design view. Double-click the Form Footer section bar to bring up the Properties window (if it isn't already up), and change the Height property to .5 inches.
7. Add a command button to the Form Footer section with the following properties:
   

          Name: cmdSelectedCompanyNames
          Caption: Display Selected Company Names
          Width: 2"
          OnClick: [Event Procedure]
          OnMouseDown: =SelRecord([Form],"Down")
          OnMouseMove: =SelRecord([Form],"Move")
          OnMouseUp:   =SelRecord([Form],"Up")
   						

8. Add the following code to the new cmdSelectedCompanyNames command button Click event:
   

          Private Sub cmdSelectedCompanyNames_Click()
             Dim X
             ' Restore the lost selection.
             SelRestore
   
             ' Enumerate the list of selected company names.
             X = DisplaySelectedCompanyNames()
          End Sub
   						

9. View the form and select a record or a set of records using the record selector buttons on the left side of the continuous form. Click the new "Display Selected Company Names" command button.
   
   Note that a message box appears for each selected record displaying the contents of the selected record's company name field.

NOTE: If you want to use the command button to enumerate the list of selected records in a subform, pass the subform as the argument to the SelRecord() function from the command button's Mouse events. For example, suppose your subform is called Orders Subform; the command button mouse move properties would be set to the following:

   OnMouseDown: =SelRecord([Orders Subform].[Form],"Down")
   OnMouseMove: =SelRecord([Orders Subform].[Form],"Move")
   OnMouseUp: =SelRecord([Orders Subform].[Form],"Up")