michigan informatics

Entering Criteria

Each field contains a place where criteria can be specified for that field. For example, if we only wanted to see participants whose last name is "Smith," we would type "Smith" into the criteria line for the field lastName. In this case, we only want to see participants whom we have contacted by mail, so we type "mail" into the criteria line for the ContactType field (1). 

You can also sort the records that your query produces by the fields in your query – ascending or descending. To sort the records by last name, choose "Ascending Sort" for that field in the sort line (2).

You can use wildcard characters in your searches, too. For example, if you wanted to see all participants who have been contacted by mail and whose name started with the letter S, you would put "mail" in the criteria line for the ContactType field, and "S*" in the criteria line for last name. The asterisk character stands for "any character or characters." When you click out of the criteria line, you will see that Access changes this to Like "S*" (3).

Criteria set for different fields on the same line indicates an "and" search. For example, both Like "S*" and "mail" are on the same line (4). These criteria mean "show me all the participants whose last name starts with the letter S and have been contacted by mail".