Greetings:
Is it possible to write a query which allows the user to specify
multiple criteria for the records to be returned?

What I mean is, say I have a table with fields of "A", "B", and "C",
which containts 5,000 records. Let's say that field A is a last name
field. Is it possible to write a query where the user can input
multiple last names (3 on one use, 7 on another, 13 on the next, ect.)
so that the records returned match the last names specified?

Thanks for you time!

Sure you can do that. The easies way is to create a table of the last names
selected, and join that table into the query definition.

If you write your own SQL, you can create a string something like
where LastName in ("Smith", "Jones", "Brown")

Good luck


"Matthew Braumiller" <matt (AT) dwminc (DOT) com> wrote

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003, "Gary Floam" <floam (AT) comcast (DOT) net> wrote:

I don't think I have explained myself very well. I'm sorry for the
confusion. I am trying to write a query for a report.

I have a table with fields A, B, C, D, E with 5,000 records.

Field A is a text field used for last name.

My users need to be able to pull up a report based on a variable
number of last names. In other words, they might need to pull up 16
last names on one report and 4 on the next; 32 on the one after that
and so on.

Is there a way to write the query so that the last statement
SELECT tblCust.*, tblCust.A
FROM tblCust
WHERE (((tblCust.A)=[Enter Last Name]));
allows the user to specify multiple last names?

I hope this is more clear.

Thanks!

On Fri, 03 Oct 2003 10:44:18 -0400, Matthew Braumiller
<matt (AT) dwminc (DOT) com> wrote:


Gary's answer is the right way to do this.
In the front end create a table called Qnames.
Create a form based on qnames.
User opens form, enters names he wants.
The query is set up as Gary suggested linking Qnames to the main table
by the Name field.
Next time the user wants to run it he just edits the names and runs
the query. (You might want a delete all option in the form.)

As the table is in the front end, no user interferes with another.

As for your second question.
If you use an SQL-Server back end as opposed to Access, you can do 2
things to improve query performance.

1. Used stored procedures in the SQL db.
2. Use pass-through queries.

both of the above require quite a bit of work and you will need to
look them up in a good book or on the net.

Good Luck
Ira Solomon