Running total in query

[?????]

I have a query which shows the following fields and orders by every one
in turn from left to right in ascending order. The fields are DATE,
[STAFF INITIALS], WORK, [hours]*[rate], DESCRIPTION and [UNIQUE REF].

How can I get a running total of the [hours]*[rate] field?

I need to use every single field to find whether a record occurs before
the current record. I have tried using the DSum function in various
ways but cannot get it to work. The date field is in the format
dd/mm/yyyy. Staff initials and work are text fields. Description is a
memo field. Hours and rate are number fields.

[Salad]

????? wrote:

I have a query which shows the following fields and orders by every one
in turn from left to right in ascending order. The fields are DATE,
[STAFF INITIALS], WORK, [hours]*[rate], DESCRIPTION and [UNIQUE REF].

How can I get a running total of the [hours]*[rate] field?

I need to use every single field to find whether a record occurs before
the current record. I have tried using the DSum function in various
ways but cannot get it to work. The date field is in the format
dd/mm/yyyy. Staff initials and work are text fields. Description is a
memo field. Hours and rate are number fields.

I sometimes wonder if running sums might be better to calc when the
record is added/deleted/modified.

It the query you could sort the table by staffid and date. In a column
enter somethink like
PriorRate:Select Sum(Hours*Rate) From TheTable Where StaffID =
[StaffId] And DateField < [DateField]

This will store the run the select process for each record and sum up
the rate*hours for all dates prior to the current records date.

This query will not be snappy if you have lots of records to compute.

You might want to see if MS still has the file QrySmp97, an MDB with
lots of query examples similar to this one