MS Access Date Sort

Question

I have a field in access which has the date for the next telephone call that I have to make to a client

How do I sort all calls due up to todays date ie keeping up with outstanding/overdue calls

I have always used Filemaker, but it I am trying to move over to access.

In Filemaker I would click Find then go to the date field in question

type 3x dots ... followed by todays date eg ...08/12/2024

That then pulled up all call dues to that date

Answer 1

The answer to your question is generally to use a query. Queries are Access's tool for filtering data.

But the short answer is using a datasheet to sort/filter records. Spend some time explroing all the tools datasheets give you.

Answer 2

I'd suggest one refinement to George's query:

SELECT ClientID, NextContactDate, OtherImportantField

FROM YourTableNameGoesHere

WHERE NextContactDate <= Date()

ORDER BY NextContactDate DESC;

This will return the rows in descending date order starting with the latest date on or before today.

Answer 3

There are other possibilities, depending on other table design factors. More details will help determine which method is appropriate to your situation.

Answer 4

I think you mean "Filter", not "Sort". Sort means to assign a sequence (newer to older or older to newer) to records. What I think you want is to filter out records that don't match the criteria, or put another way, filter in records that match the criteria.

A query on the table in which the NextContactDate (or whatever you called it) is located will return the records you need.

However, there is another logic question that we ought to figure out. What does it mean to say, "... keeping up with outstanding/overdue calls"

How do you know if a call is overdue? Is there another field in the table which indicates you made the call on or before the due date? Or is it just a matter of comparing the current date to all of the date values in the field to see which ones are prior to the current date? I can see this going in a couple of directions, so the following assumption might need to be refined.

I'm going to make the assumption that all you need is a set of records for those clients whose NextContactDate is less than or equal to the current date.

SELECT ClientID, NextContactDate, OtherImportantField

FROM YourTableNameGoesHere

WHERE NextContactDate <= Date()

Answer 5

I have a field in access which has the date for the next telephone call that I have to make to a client

How do I sort all calls due up to todays date ie keeping up with outstanding/overdue calls

I have always used Filemaker, but it I am trying to move over to access.

In Filemaker I would click Find then go to the date field in question

type 3x dots ... followed by todays date eg ...08/12/2024

That then pulled up all call dues to that date

Well one way to do this would be as follows:-

Assuming that you have a Table called:-

Sample Dataset

 - in ACCESS and one field in that Table called:-

Service Date

Pull up the Table in Datasheet View then click on the column header called:-

Service Date

 - then click on its drop down arrow and make the required selection for example:-

Sort Newest to Oldest