distinction between using .text and .value in VBA access

Question

i am passing the textbox1.text values into a query and sometimes into a string

sometimes i say this:

dim combor1 as string
combor1 = comboReason1.Text

how do i know when i should put combor1=comboreason1.value ??

also why do i need to set focus for a control to reference its property? that doesn't make sense to me

also when i set combor4 = comboReason4.Value and the .value is null, then i get an error about invalid use of null

please help!

Answer 1

• ".text" gives you what is displayed on the screen
• ".value" gives you the underlying value

Both usually give the same result, except when the corresponding control is

1. a combobox or listbox control
2. the displayed value differs from the bound column

Example:

• id_Person is a combobox control in a form
• the rowsource is "SELECT id_Person, personName FROM Tbl_Person"
• column widths are "0cm;3cm"
• bound column is 1

In this situation:

• id_Person.text displays Tbl_Person.personName
• id_Person.value displays Tbl_Person.id_Person.

.text property is available only when the corresponding control has the focus.

.text is a string value, therefore it cannot be Null, while .value can be Null