BUILDING CRITERIA EXPRESSIONS
INTRODUCTION
Expressions in Microsoft access can be considered
similar to formulae in excel.
Expression are a combination of operands,
operators, functions and values.
Expressions can be used with tables, queries,
forms, reports and macros.
In access, expressions are used to obtain
calculated values, provide criteria.
Access uses a powerful user interactive tool called
as Expression Builder to create expressions.
USING OPERANDS IN CRITERIA EXPRESSIONS
Query criteria are the most important
part of any query as they permit users
to select only the desired records from
an existing table.
An operand is a value on which a
calculation is performed.
Operands can be Literals, Identifiers or
Functions.
LITERALS
It is a value that is not addressed by a
name.
It can be typed directly into the criteria
expressions.
In access, literal can be of type
number, text, date or Boolean value.
Ex. [Date]> #1/1/2011#
Marks1+marks2 etc.
IDENTIFIERS
Identifiers are variables.
They represent field name, table name
or control name.
They are an important part of
expression builder because they
specify the column to which an
expression represents.
They are always represented in []
brackets.
Ex. [basic salary] + [tax]
FUNCTIONS
They provide special operations.
These are built in expressions that take an input,
perform necessary calculations on it and return
the output.
The input accepted by the function is called as
argument; a function may have more than one
argument.
Access provides us different functions to work with
different type of data, such as text functions, date
and time functions, numeric functions, and
mathematical functions.
Ex. Length (MS Access) will return 9
USING OPERATORS IN CRITERIA EXPRESSIONS
Operators make the expression complete.
They are special symbols such as +, -, used
with operands to perform calculations.
Every operator has a specific meaning and
a symbol.
Operators help in creating expressions with
the combination of identifiers and values.
Every operator is executed according to a
priority.
OPERATORS CONTINUE.. DIFFERENT
TYPES
COMPARISION OPERATORS
ARITHMETIC OPERATORS
MISCELLANEOUS OPERATORS
COMPOUND CRITERIA & LOGICAL
OPERATORS
COMPARISION OPERATORS
They are called as relational operators.
They define relation between two
identifiers or two values by comparing
them.
These operators can be used with
OPERATOR
NAME
numeric
or date data
type.
>
Greater than
<
Less than
>=
Greater than equal to
<=
Less than equal to
<>
Not equal to
Equal to
ARITHMETIC OPERATORS
They are commonly known as
mathematical operators and are used
with numeric data.
OPERATOR
NAME
EXPLAINATIO
N
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Divide
5/2 =
2.5,5/2.5=2
Integer Divide
5\2 = 2, 5 \
2.5=2
Exponentiation
2^4 = 16
MISCELLANEOUS OPERATORS
The Like operator:
It works with text or date data type.
It us used to match text patterns.
WILDCARD
EXPLANATION
EXAMPLE
Any number of
characters. (0 or
more)
Like A* will
match all
characters starting
from A
Denotes a single
character
Like B??K will
match B__K
Denotes a single
digit
Like #ABC will
match [0-9]ABC
[xyz]
Denotes a set of
characters
Like [ABC]* will
match all text
starting from
BETWEEN & AND OPERATOR
The Between operator is used with
Numeric and Date data type to obtain a
set of values within a specific range.
Ex. Between 10 and 20 will give all
values within this range including 10
and 20.
Between #1/1/2011# and #1/8/2011#
will return all the dates between 1-jan2011 and 8-jan-2011.
IN OPERATOR
The IN operator is used to match a
value to a set of values given. This
operator can be used the Numeric, Text
or Date type.
Ex. [Month] IN (Jan,Feb,Apr,May)
will match all the month values which
are either from the specified values.
IS NULL OPERATOR
The IS NULL operator is used to find the null records
in table.
We use IS with NULL to indicate all the record which
are null in the table.
NOTE: Null is not 0 or Blank.
Ex. [discount] IS NULL will return all the records with
[discount] value as NULL.
Similar to IS NULL, IS NOT NULL searches for nunnull values.
Ex. [Advance Amount] IS NOT NULL will return all
records where [Advance Amount] is not null.
LOGICAL OPERATORS
A logical operator results in expression
that returns True or False.
These operators are used to combine
OPERATOR
NAME
EXPLANATION
multiple
expressions.
And
Logical And
Returns True if both
expressions are true
Or
Logical Or
Returns True if either
of expressions are
true
Eqv
Logical Exclusive Nor
Returns False if
either both
expressions are true
or both are false
Xor
Logical Exclusive Or
Returns True if either
both expressions are
USING COMPOUND CRITERIA
Queries can help retrieve data in any form.
Queries are usually created on multiple criteria,
known as compound criteria AND and OR.
AND :
In AND, compound criteria will return results only if
each individual criterion is true.
Ex. If we add criteria to the query from the customer
table as:
[State] = CA AND [Credit Limit] > 500000, it will
return customers from California who have credit
limit greater than 500000
OR CRITERIA
In OR, compound criteria will return
results if either of the criterion specified
is true.
Ex. If we add criteria to the query from
the customer table as:
[State] = CA OR [Credit Limit] >
500000, it will return all customers
either from California or who have credit
limit greater than 500000
USING THE BUILT IN FUNCTIONS
Mathematical
Date/time
Financial
Sql aggregate
Text
TEXT FUNCTIONS
NAME
EXPLANATION
EXAMPLE
LEFT ()
Return characters from left of
string
Left (Access,3) will return
ACC
RIGHT ()
Return characters from right
of string
Right (Access,3) will return
ess
MID ()
Return characters at specified
position of string
Mid (Access,2,3) will return
cce
LEN ()
Return length of string
Len (Access) will return 6
LCASE ()
Convert text to lower case
Lcase(ACCESS) will return
access
UCASE ()
Convert text to upper case
Ucase (access) will return
ACCESS
INSTR ()
Return the position of first
occurrence of a string in
another string
Instr (Operations,ra) will
return 4
TRIM ()
Remove space in a string
Trim (
ACC ESS
return ACC ESS
REPLACE ()
Replace the string
Replace (Account
Transaction,Account,
Daily) returns Daily
Transactions
STRCOMP ()
Compare two string. If equal
0 and 1 if first string is
) will
DATE AND TIME FUNCTIONS
MATH FUNCTIONS
FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS
FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS
