MS Access SQL Reference




This is a reference guide for the SQL engine that is inside of Microsoft Access. These SQL statements can be used inside of Access; inside the SQL View of the of the Query Design menu or in the VBA editor, where the SQL statments can be used inside the SQL string portions of DAO or ADO objects or any other VBA objects that use SQL statments.


Instead of typing straing in the SQL view; if you don't already have it installed, Notepad++ is a great tool to write code in, then you can copy and paste it into the SQL view.


Notepad++ Link


In an attempt to make it easy to understand the syntax at a glance, I have color coded it.


Blue - Is used to identify reserved keywords/characters that are used by the SQL engine, i.e. SELECT, FROM, or WHERE.


Purple - Is used to identify portions of the SQL statement that are defined by the user, i.e. Column Names, Table Names, Inputed Values.


Other notes:

Strings - If you are constraining rows with a string, it must be enclosed in "" double quotation or '' single quotation.


Number Values - If you are constraining rows with a number value it does not need to be enclosed in "" double quotation or '' single quotation.


Dates - If you are constraining rows with a date, it must be enclosed in ##.


"" Double Quotation marks vs '' Single Quotation marks - In most cases when you can enclose strings withing either of these and it will work just the same. However, when you are entering a SQL statement into VBA the '' single quotation marks are far better to use due to the fact that the the SQL string will be bookended by "" double quotation marks. Personally I just always use '' marks for consistency.

HTML 5 Badge