Hands-On Microsoft Access: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Access Skills

The Nature of Queries

I suppose it's frivolous to portray one Access object as more pleasant and agreeable to create than the others. You build objects because you need them, not to fill idle hours.

Still, compared with building other Access objects, it's hard not to have some special affection for the query. Tables require toying with those ornery primary keys, as well as pondering settings for long lists of field properties. Forms and reports of any complexity offer a Hobson's choice of tedium through control-by-control construction, or disappointment from cookie-cutter wizards.

In contrast, the query is a veritable playground. The unadorned design grid is simple and entirely straightforward. Fields can be added and deleted with ease. Criteria ...