Public Module

It should be pointed out that 'Me' and '[Form]' only work when your coding within a form module.  If you were in a general module and had a form name as a string, you'd need to do something like this:

Function/Sub:

  Sub LockControls(strFormName as string)

  Dim frm as form

  Set frm = Forms(strFormName)


 frm is now a form object and you can access it's methods and properties.  ie.

  If frm.visible = True then

Jim.

Ok folks,
  Gonna take a look at these later this morning and get back to you with points

Just one other point, doing your routines like this:

Public Sub DoStuff(strFormName as String, strControlName as String)
         Forms(strFormName).Requery
         Forms(strFormName).controls(strControlName).Requery
End Sub

 is a tad slower rather then addressing it as an object because your forcing Access to lookup the object in the forms collection each time you reference it rather then giving it a direct pointer.

However it's a lot easier to use that way.  For example, you can easily call it from the debug window simply by typing:

 Call DoStuff("JimsForm","FirstControl")

and hitting return.  You can't do that always when it's defined as an object:

Public Sub DoStuff(frm as Form, ctl as Control)

 I actually use both approaches making sure I use the latter for the critical stuff to ge the best performance and the first for procedures I might want to call on the fly as I test and debug.

Jim.

<< is a tad slower rather then addressing it as an object because your forcing Access to lookup the object in the forms collection each time you reference it rather then giving it a direct pointer.>>

  BTW, a best of both worlds approach is to do what I showed, especially if your going to perform a lot of operations on it:

  Sub LockControl(strFormName as string, strControlName as string)

  Dim frm as form
  Dim ctl as control

  Set frm = Forms(strFormName)
  set ctl = Forms(strFormName)(strControlName)

  and now you have objects to work with even though you passed in strings.

Jim.

Ok guys...

I built a module and placed this in it

Option Compare Database

Public Function DoStuff(strFormName As String, strControlName As String) As String
         DoStuff = Forms(strFormName).Controls(strControlName).Caption
End Function

I'm calling it with this...
    Dim s As String
    s = DoStuff("MarketingVisitationClientContactsWorklist", "lblTestMessage")

The FORM Name I got by actually doing a F2 on the name of the form from the Forms window in MS Access and copying the name.

When I look at the properties in the form...I see that the Caption is the same thing



On other forms I can access the information I need.
But on this particular form...I get a "Can't fins the Form error message"


I have tried every way possible to acces this subform per question  https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/27981361/MS-Access-2003-cannot-access-Subform-making-me-crazy.html

Any ideas?

ALthough this may need to be placed in a new question?

Since you're dealing with subforms, the references to your forms and controls are going to be different - depending on where you place the code you call your public function or sub with.

This is a 5-minute (ugly) sample that demonstrates this:PublicFunction.mdb


The code in the sample uses Jim D's suggestion of using the form object rather than the form name when calling your routine. This simplifies working with subforms - especially since you need to look at your subforms as controls containing forms.  

It calls the public function from a variety of places, refering to a main form, sub form and sub-subform.  Take a look at the code behind the buttons for the differences.


Note - To work with a subform as a form, you need to first refer to the control housing the subform and then specify that you want to work with it as a form (hence the  Me.subformControlName.Form syntax)

<<
The FORM Name I got by actually doing a F2 on the name of the form from the Forms window in MS Access and copying the name.
>>

Also  - when dealing with subform paths, the "subform name" you need to refer to is actually the name of the control that houses your subform -- which might not be the same as the name you see in the Forms window.  The subform control name is determined by right-clicking the 'frame' of the subform control in your form's design, bringing up its property sheet and looking up the Name property.

Hey folks,
  Thanks.  Looks like I should do a split on the points between mbizup and Jim D

Any objections?

Jim was first and mbizup gave a working example.

Looks like I need to go back to JimD; there are two Jim's in the thread.   Jim Horn was first.

I'm fine with no points or whatever.

JimD.

Well done guys.

I wanted everyone with valid input to get points