Access create search Form

This Access tutorial explains how to create a search Form with multiple criteria.

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Access create search Form with multiple criteria

Sometimes you need to create a search Form where users can select specific criteria. The simplest solution is to directly filter data for each field like using AutoFilter in Excel, but this is not elegant at all. A better way to do this is for user to choose from dropdown box of different levels, value of one dropdown box depends on the value of another dropdown box.

For example, in the first dropdown box, users choose department A, and then in the second dropdown box,  users can view a list of person of department A.

This tutorial will show you how to do this.

Create a result Form

Assume that we have a Query as below. Our goal is to allow users to select department to show employee information, or select department + employee ID.

We are going to make a “result Form” that shows the search result.

Query1

Department	Employee ID	Employment Date	Salary	Allowance
Account	1	1/1/2000	10000	100
Admin	2	1/1/2001	20000	200
Admin	3	1/1/2002	30000	300
Admin	4	1/1/2003	40000	400
Payroll	5	1/1/2004	50000	500
HR	6	1/1/2005	60000	600

Click on the Query and the under Create tab, select More Forms > DataSheet

Now save the Form as result_frm

In this example, I want to return all fields of Query1 in Result Form. I choose DataSheet because each record can be displayed in one row with horizontal scroll bar. I don’t prefer to use Continuous Form or Single Form because each record is displayed in several rows.

Create a Search Form

Create a blank Form and then add two Combo Boxes (Combo_Dept, Combo_EmpID) and one button (search_btn) as shown below.

1) Click on Combo_Dept, in the Row Source property, type

SELECT DISTINCT Department FROM Query1;

Row Source is what you can select in the ComboBox.

2) Click on Combo_EmpID, in the Row Source property, type

SELECT [Employee ID] FROM Query1 WHERE [Department]=[forms]![search_frm]![Combo_Dept];

3) Select Combo_Dept, select After Update Event and build the below Procedure

Private Sub Combo_Dept_AfterUpdate()
    Me.Combo_EmpID = Null
    Me.Combo_EmpID.Requery
End Sub

As you select a Department, Combo_EmpID is reset to Null and then rerun the query

4) Right Click on search_btn and then choose Build Event

Private Sub search_btn_Click()
    If IsNull(Me.Combo_EmpID) Then
        searchCriteria = "[Department]='" & Me.Combo_Dept & "'"
        searchSQL = "Select * FROM Query1 where " & searchCriteria
    Else
        searchCriteria = "[Department]='" & Me.Combo_Dept & "' AND [Employee ID] =" & Me.Combo_EmpID
        searchSQL = "Select * FROM Query1 where " & searchCriteria
    End If
    DoCmd.OpenForm "result_frm", 3, searchSQL
End Sub

Now you have successfully created a simple search Form. After you have selected criteria in Search Form, once you click the search button, the Result Form will pop up and displays the result.

Outbound References

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff820845.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Access create search Form