Test if a particular field has got focus

[LSteve]

Hi All
Is there any way to test if a form field has got focus. I have a button that runs code to filters by selection, but if any other field other than the field [MthFwd] is selected i want a message box to appear and tell the user to select a month from the MthFwd field before running the filter. Here is my code:

Private Sub cmdFBSelection_Click()
 
     Screen.PreviousControl.SetFocus 
 
     'Code to check if MthFwd has focus. If not  then msbbox and exit sub
 
     DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdFilterBySelection 'Runs filter
 
 
End Sub

Thanks in advance for any help

LSteve

[Stewart Ross]

Hi. One way to do what you need to do is to check the name of the control returned by Screen.PreviousControl.

Private Sub cmdFBSelection_Click()
Dim Ctrl as Control
Set Ctrl = Screen.PreviousControl
If Ctrl.Name <> "Mthfwd" then
  MsgBox "your message"
  Ctrl.Setfocus
  Exit Sub
end if
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdFilterBySelection 'Runs filter
End Sub

I am not convinced that this is the right way to go as all it shows is that the last control that had focus was the one mentioned. It does not show that a value has been updated. If you need to ensure that a value has been updated you could use the After Update event for that control to set a value accordingly, then test for this value in your selection code.

As an example, you could set the control's tag property (which is normally unused) to a text value in the control's After Update event code then test for that value in your selection click routine:

Private Sub MthFwd_AfterUpdate()
  Me!MthFwd.Tag = "Updated"
End Sub

Private Sub cmdFBSelection_Click()
If Me!Mthfwd.Tag <> "Updated" then
  MsgBox "your message"
  Me!MthFwd.Setfocus
  Exit Sub
end if
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdFilterBySelection 'Runs filter
End Sub

Hope these ideas help.

-Stewart

[Stewart Ross]

I had a further thought: if all you need to do is to make sure there is a value in Mthfwd to filter upon, why not just test for Mthfwd null?

If IsNull(Me!Mthfwd) then
  msgbox "no value selected"
  Me!Mthfwd.SetFocus
  Exit Sub
End If

-Stewart

[LSteve]

Thanks Stuart for your help. I now have it working by using your suggestion of using the tag property. When MthFwd had focus i set the tag to a value of 1. when it lost focus it was set to a value of 0. This value is then used to run the relavent code.
There is so much to learn for us newbies.

Thanks again
LSteve

[NeoPa]

In a form, Me.ActiveControl is the one with the focus. If the one you want to test has a .Name that is different, then it's not got the focus.