Filtering with a Criteria String

The criteria string is made up of clauses in the form FieldName Operator Value (for example, "LastName = 'Smith'"). You can create compound clauses by concatenating individual clauses with AND (for example, "LastName = 'Smith' AND FirstName = 'John'") and OR (for example, "LastName = 'Smith' OR LastName = 'Jones'"). Use the following guidelines for criteria strings:

• FieldName must be a valid field name from the Recordset. If the field name contains spaces, you must enclose the name in square brackets.
• Operator must be one of the following: <, >, <=, >=, <>, =, or LIKE.
• Value is the value with which you will compare the field values (for example, 'Smith', #8/24/95#, 12.345, or $50.00). Use single quotation marks (') with strings and pound signs (#) with dates. For numbers, you can use decimal points, dollar signs, and scientific notation. If Operator is LIKE, Value can use wildcards. Only the asterisk (*) and percent sign (%) wildcards are allowed, and they must be the last character in the string. Value cannot be null.

  Note   To include single quotation marks (') in the filter Value, use two single quotation marks to represent one. For example, to filter on O'Malley, the criteria string should be "col1 = 'O''Malley'". To include single quotation marks at both the beginning and the end of the filter value, enclose the string in pound signs (#). For example, to filter on '1', the criteria string should be "col1 = #'1'#".

There is no precedence between AND and OR. Clauses can be grouped within parentheses. However, you cannot group clauses joined by an OR and then join the group to another clause with an AND, like this:

(LastName = 'Smith' OR LastName = 'Jones') AND FirstName = 'John'

Instead, you would construct this filter as:

(LastName = 'Smith' AND FirstName = 'John') OR (LastName = 'Jones' AND FirstName = 'John')

In a LIKE clause, you can use a wildcard at the beginning and end of the pattern (for example, LastName Like '*mit*') or only at the end of the pattern (for example, LastName Like 'Smit*').