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Open Button (Worksheet)


The Open button on the Worksheet footer launches the Table/Query Select window, letting you open a new Worksheet using any previously stored table or SQL view. This means that all the flexibility of our graphing functions, calendar-view mode, full or selective export to Excel and all the rest can be used, not only with queries generated from natural language questions, but with any record set you can point at.

This enhanced ability to use the Worksheet with data that originates anywhere (even in remote tables linked by ODBC connections), is what gave us the idea that Access ELF 2002 might be useful to . . . well, to just about anyone who uses Microsoft Access. (Even those not especially interested in natural language queries.) In short, it's the reason behind our decision to make this release freely distributable. For more details, see the Redistribution topic.

Clicking the Worksheet icon on the Access ELF toolbar opens a Worksheet based on the last translated question. If the Worksheet is opened before any questions are asked during the session, a blank Worksheet opens, along with the Table/Query selector. This prompts you to choose a source for the Worksheet's data. To clear out the Worksheet's contents and start fresh, use the Open button to launch the Table/View selector. You can also fire up the Microsoft Access Query Designer from within the Worksheet, so that your query will immediately show in Worksheet mode. To do this, just Drop the initial SQL statement (Q1). A blank "stub" query in created, which you can then modify using all the Query Designer tools. When you finish designing the query, close and save it and the results will appear within the current Worksheet.

To add an additional query onto the end of a skein of SQL statements, use the Add button.

There are just a few limitations on what you can do with the Worksheet. First, as with the rest of Access ELF, pass-through queries to remote enterprise databases such as SQL Server and Oracle are not supported. You can still get to this information, but you must use the Linked Table method (File/Get External Data/Link Tables . . . then select an ODBC data source).

You can open parameter queries, but you may need to enter any required parameters twice. This situation occurs if you've embedded [parameter] markers into an SQL statement, without registering the type of each parameter in the query's parameter list. To fix this, right-click on the Microsoft Query Designer while in Design View (not SQL view), and choose Parameters from the menu. Besides requiring that you re-enter untyped parameters, Access ELF will not be able to graph these queries in any mode.

Because we're not sticklers for protocol, we've also included a way that you can work around this limitation fairly easily. If you have a parameterized, but untyped SQL statement, you can preface it with a short PARAMETERS instruction. This doesn't require the full type-declaration syntax, but it will convince Access ELF to inquire about the parameters and insert them into your query. For instance, type the following into the SQL window:

select * from employees where notes like "*" & [key] & "*"

While this will run in Datasheet mode, anything fancier (such as Worksheet or Graphs) will have problems. To dodge these errors, rewrite the SQL using the "relaxed" Parameters declaration:

parameters [key] ;
select * from employees where notes like "*" & [key] & "*"

Separate any parameters in the declaration using commas, and end up with a semi-colon. Of course, you can use the full syntax, too, eg Parameters [key] Text , [BirthDate] DateTime ; -- but don't mix the two styles.

If your parameters are untyped, be sure to include any delimiters when keying in replacement values. This includes the # character bracketing dates, and quotes around text. You'd need to enter: "literature" (with the quotes) for the above example to work.

Last Updated: March, 2002