ACC: Using Visual Basic to Hide a Link to an External Table

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Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. The following Visual Basic for Applications procedure use the sample database Northwind.mdb to create a new table (New Table); it then links the new table to an external table (the Examples table in the sample database Solutions.mdb); and finally, it sets the hidden attribute of the new table to True so that the table is hidden on the local computer.

Creating, Linking, and Hiding the Table

1. Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:

   Option Explicit
   					

3. Type the following procedure:

         Function MakeHiddenAttachedTable(strDatabaseName As String, _
                  strTableName As String, strAttachedTableName As String)
   
            Dim db As Database
            Dim td As TableDef
   
            Set db = CurrentDb
            Set td = db.CreateTableDef(strAttachedTableName)
   
            td.Connect = ";Database=" & strDatabaseName
            td.SourceTableName = strTableName
            db.TableDefs.Append td
            td.Attributes = dbHiddenObject
   
            Set td = Nothing
            Set db = Nothing
   
         End Function
   					

4. To test this function, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

   ?MakeHiddenAttachedTable ("Solutions", "Examples", "New Table")
   						

   A new hidden table named New Table that links the Examples table in the Solutions database is created.

Delete the New Table Table

The following steps demonstrate how to use a Visual Basic for Applications procedure to delete a hidden linked table in the sample database Northwind.mdb:

1. Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:

   Option Explicit
   					

3. Type the following procedure:

         Function DeleteHiddenAttachedTable(strAttachedTableName As String)
   
            Dim db As Database
            Set db = CurrentDb
   
            db.TableDefs.Delete strAttachedTableName
   
         End Function
   					

4. To test this function, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

   ?DeleteHiddenAttachedTable("New Table")
   						

   The new hidden table, New Table, is deleted.