Using textbox values in IN statement

Question

I'm trying to get this to work? How can I set a textbox to be used in an IN() statement? I would like users to be able to list out countries they'd like to query on

SELECT *
FROM Table
WHERE CountryID IN (forms!frmImport!txtCountries)

Answer 1

You can't just put the name of the textbox directly into the SQL string.
Instead, you need to use the content of the textbox to build a SQL string like this:

SELECT * FROM Table WHERE CountryID IN (1,2,3)

If your users enter a comma-separated list of CountryIDs into the textbox, you can build the SQL like this:

Dim SQL As String

SQL = "SELECT * FROM Table WHERE CountryID IN (" & Forms!frmImport!txtCountries & ")"

But I wouldn't do it this way because it's simple, but prone to input errors and SQL injection.

A better way would be to use a list box, set the Multi Select property (so that multiple entries can be selected) and fill it with a list of all available countries.

Then, the user can select the ones that he wants, and you can build the SQL string using the selected items from the listbox:

Dim ListItem As Variant
Dim CountryList As String
Dim SQL As String

For Each ListItem In Forms!frmImport!lstCountries.ItemsSelected
    If CountryList > "" Then
        CountryList = CountryList & ","
    End If
    CountryList = CountryList & ListItem
Next

SQL = "SELECT * FROM Table WHERE CountryID IN (" & CountryList & ")"