Laugh and point at the syntax moron

[Kraj]

Feel free to pick on me. I can't get syntax right. Ever. So when I can't figure it out I just try to find an example of what I want to do and use it as a guide. But I've not been able to find a single example (and I looked at a lot of threads and the *shudder* help files) of using "OR" in a DSum within a single field. Here is a simplified version of my statement:

=DSum("[Contribution_Amount]","tbl_CONTRIBUTION","[Employee_ID] =" & Forms!frmNew_Contribution!Employee_ID & " and [Special_Case] Is Null")

This works perfectly. I want it to look like this:

=DSum("[Contribution_Amount]","tbl_CONTRIBUTION","[Employee_ID] =" & Forms!frmNew_Contribution!Employee_ID & " and [Special_Case] = 'stringABC' or Is Null")

But this errors. And I've tried every combination of ' " () & # I can think of and everything errors, unless I completely set the OR apart into a new criteria, in which case it executes but produces results that are not what I'm trying to get. It also works if I add "= 'stringABC'" and remove the IsNull. I just can't seem to have both. Does anyone know how to write this properly?

 

[FoFa]

OR [fieldname] IS NULL

 

[FoFa]

Also be careful with both the AND and the OR in that criteria, use Parens to enclose them properly

 

[Pat Hartman]

So, the DSum() would look like:
=DSum("[Contribution_Amount]","tbl_CONTRIBUTION","[Employee_ID] =" & Forms!frmNew_Contribution!Employee_ID & " and ([Special_Case] = 'stringABC' or [Special_Case] Is Null"))

Field names are not transitive. They must be repeated for each condition.

Wrong:
If fld1 = a or b or c
Correct:
If fld1 = a or fld1 = b or fld1 = c
Alternate:
If fld1 In(a,b,c)

 

[Kraj]

That did it. Thanks very much. I think I tried it with repeating the field name and with parenthesis, but not with both at the same time. Or maybe I included the and within the paranthesis.

Thanks for the assistance!