Microsoft KB Archive/95917

= ACC: Concatenating Fields in a Text Box to Remove Blank Lines =

Article ID: 95917

Article Last Modified on 1/18/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Access 1.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 1.1 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 2.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q95917



Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.



SUMMARY
This article describes how to concatenate multiple fields for use in a form or report. This is especially useful in a mailing label report when some fields are Null or Empty. Null fields can cause blank lines to be printed on a report. Additionally, from a form, you may want to be able to copy and paste an entire name and address into another application, such as Microsoft Word for Windows.

Using the IIf and IsNull functions, you can determine if a field is blank. If a field is blank, it returns an &quot;empty&quot; value. Chr(13) and Chr(10) are used to add a return and a line feed character to the text box.



MORE INFORMATION
Follow these steps to create a concatenated field that eliminates blank lines. This example uses a form, but the same steps also apply to reports.

 Open the sample database Northwind.mdb (or Nwind.mdb in Microsoft Access 1.x or 2.0). Create a new form based on the Employees table and open it in Design view.  Add a text box control to the detail section of the form and set the following properties.

NOTE: In the following example, an underscore (_) is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this example.

     Text Box ---     ControlName: Full Address ControlSource: =IIf(IsNull([FirstName]),&quot;&quot;,[FirstName] & &quot; &quot;) & _ IIf(IsNull([LastName]),&quot;&quot;,[LastName]& Chr(13)& Chr(10)) & _ IIf(IsNull([ADDRESS]),&quot;&quot;,[ADDRESS] & Chr(13) & Chr(10)) & _ IIf(IsNull([CITY]),&quot;&quot;,[CITY] & &quot;, &quot;) & _ IIf(IsNull([REGION]) ,&quot;&quot;,[REGION] & &quot; &quot;) & _ IIf(IsNull([PostalCode]),&quot;&quot;,[PostalCode]) Can Grow:  Yes Can Shrink: Yes

NOTE: In versions 1.x and 2.0, replace all instances of [FirstName], [LastName], and [PostalCode] in the previous example with [First Name], [Last Name], and [Postal Code].  Open the form in Form view. Note that there are no blank lines even if some of the fields in the Employees table are blank.

