Table or Query for RecordSource

[EPD Hater]

I have 2 sub-forms housed in a main "parent" form for display purposes. They are unbound to the parent form. The sub-form record sources are tables, and these tables will get appended 20-70 records per day through an automated import process.

However, when the subforms are opened with the main form, I only want certain items to display. I am currently doing this through a filter preset into the subforms' properties. On Open, VBA is setting FilterOn = True, while the properties AllowFilters is set to NO (I do not want the user to turn off the filter). My question is this:

Should I rely on queries to populate the data into my subforms instead of using filters? (The user will still have to be able to edit the data in the subforms which I think is still possible when the RecordSource is a query.) Will performance become an issue if I continue to turn on the filter when the subforms are opened?

(Access XP, and the tables contain keys)

 

[KenHigg]

How many total records will the subforms need to look through to get the ones it needs to display and how many will be displayed?

 

[EPD Hater]

The number of records in the tables will be continuing increasing through a daily import. The subform(s) will filter/display a decreasing percentage (probably about 20-40 records that users will update).

Regardless, when I make the determination as to whether to move to queries for the subforms' record sources, what other things need I worry about?

 

[pono1]

EPD,

Make sure the field (or fields) used in your query's WHERE criterion is indexed.

Regards,
Tim

 

[EPD Hater]

Okay, I'll index them. I'm curious to see how many records will start to bog down performance without the indexing. It'll be two fields...my filter is [UpdateUser] IS NULL AND [DTS] IS NULL. They aren't the primary keys though.

 

[pono1]

One thought: If your DB is standalone, you probably don't need to worry about performance. Access is "Google-fast" when used as a stand-alone, at least in my experience.

Regards,
Tim