How to "attack" this problem...

[shkrebs]

Hi there.

I need a little help to get started.
I'm working with a financial program (Visual Factu) based on MS-Access tables, and I have to create some new reports.
The report I'm fighting with right now is suppose to make a list of how many bookes there has been sold and for what price - grouped by the first two digi's in the zip-code (28=Madrid, 08=Barcelona etc.)
I guess I have to make a table with all the data and then later put them into a form or a report, but I'm not sure about if I can do it in one or more SQL(s) or if I have to use the VB in Access.

Any guidelines will be recieved with a BIIIIG smile

Best regards
Soren H. Krebs

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Your best friends here, for rapid (even perhaps quick-and-dirty) generation of reports, is a set of queries.

If you want to build a report grouped by the first two digits of your postal code, express that code as text. (If it is always numeric, use either CStr(code) if it is always the same size, or a Format(code, fmt-string) if it can vary.) Then take the Left(string,2) of the result.

You can build a report on a query just as easily as you could on the raw table. And if you have data transformations (the above being one such example), queries make it nearly trivial.

Here is another guideline. No matter how ugly the table or query, I always start with the query wizard to toss together a form or report. Because, you see, there is ALWAYS the Design button that lets me move things around in drag-n-drop fashion.

So, in summary, two bits of advice: Do data transformations in queries and report on the queries, and use wizards to build the reports with the expectation of subsequent tweaking.

Good luck.