Michael Thomas wrote:
Hi all
Just out of curiosity, what is the difference between VB and VBA and
how does this impact on Microsoft Access?
Thanks,
Michael
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the variant of Visual Basic
integrated into Microsoft Office including Access. You use it to write
office apps, automate Office tasks etc. It will be around for a while yet
though I read somewhere that it's lifespan is limited due to developments in
VB.
Visual Basic (VB) is a programming language in it's own right - there are
various versions out there. Because Microsoft is the heavy hitter of the
industry it's recent revamp of languages including VB.NET means that anyone
using VB or even VBA will be considering the pros and cons of moving to
VB.NET.
You will use VBA when creating an Access database. There are advantages in
moving to VB.NET or even VB but there are significant disadvantages; Access
allows you to create a nice database app quite quickly and the report
generator is superb. Of course you could manipulate Access from VB if
desired but that's not something I know much about.
The long-term affect of VB.NET on the lifepan of VBA will be interesting. I
suspect Microsoft would like everyone to buy their dev tools and start
coding everything up in VB.NET. I have been looking at moving for a while
but time and money is finite at the moment. Either that or I want to learn
Java.