Access 2000 VBA Handbook

Database front ends are the bread and butter of most Visual Basic programmers, so it pays to know how to build them well (and as efficiently as possible). Access 2000 VBA Handbook does a good job of explaining the power of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and how it can be used to create custom interfaces on top of Access 2000 databases. This is a well-written, comprehensively researched book well-suited to aspiring Access developers. It's also a fine resource for programmers who use older versions of Access and want to learn more about the newest version, particularly the new DAO-centric approach to transactions.

The writing style will appeal to those with a modicum of familiarity in general programming concepts and procedures--the sort of knowledge one can gain in a university-level survey programming course. It documents core VBA as it applies to Access but concentrates mostly on explaining the tools available to solve various problems. The book doesn't go overboard with code listings--a greater number of explicitly stated solutions to problems would have made it better. Instead, it presents long, annotated lists of options and parameters. It also documents lots of step-by-step procedures involving Access's graphical user interface. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Database Wizard, the VBA programming environment, basic VBA data and control structures, form design, record manipulation, and Structured Query Language (SQL). Object model coverage includes the Access object model, Data Access Objects (DAO) and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), with data-access emphasis on DAO.