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2 Major Parts of a Query Window

1.) Design Area or the top portion displays the fields, tables, and queries that you may want touse in the query

2.) Grid or the lower portion contains columns where you can set up the fields.Matching Text when you enter criteria in the cell, your text should be enclosed in quotes to distinguish

it from operators and other expression.

Criteria

Description

This will find all records that match exactly with the text string in the

Criteria. Therefore, it will display all records whose Town matches with

Claremont.

This will display all records that match the word inside the

quotes. It will display all records whose town entry is

Claremont or Paris typing Alhambra in the or: category

will also produced the same results.

To exclude a value in the field, use the Not operator followed by the

word enclosed in quotes.

Field: City

Table: Students

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria = Claremont

Field: City

Table: Students

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria = Claremont or Alhambra

Field: City

Table: Students

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria = Not Claremont or:

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Using Wildcards

A wildcard is a special character that is used to substitute unknown characters in a query. The two

commonly used wildcards are the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?).An asterisk represents any

string of text while the question mark represents a single character only.

Criteria Description

This will find all records that start with the letter B in the Title field. Access will

add the expression Like and place quotes around your criteria.

This will display all records that end with ing in the field.

This will find all records matched with the specified pattern. This will

display Mary but not Maryl.

Field: Title

Table: Books

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria: Like B*

Or:

Field: Title

Table: Books

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria: Like *ing

Or:

Field: FirstName

Table: Students

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria: Like Mar?

Or:

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You can also use > and < in defining criteria in text fields which may also return the same result.

Although these are usually used in numbers and dates but can also be used for text.

This will display all records beginning with any letter before the letter C in

the alphabet.

This will display all records beginning with any letter after the letter C in the

alphabet.

Field: FirstName

Table: Students

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria: < C

Or:

Field: FirstName

Table: Students

Sort:

Show: check

Criteria: > C

Or: