Which one - Access Reporting or SQL (1 Viewer)

I'm getting familiar with Access in order to start creating reports. I need reports that are loaded with conditional fields and maybe some conditional images.
Would people here suggest using Access Reporting or jump into SQL ?
If Access, does anyone have a special tutorial that they could suggest?
Thanks for any and all comments

As far as tutorials go this series is pretty good.

CritterLes said:

I'm getting familiar with Access in order to start creating reports. I need reports that are loaded with conditional fields and maybe some conditional images.
Would people here suggest using Access Reporting or jump into SQL ?
If Access, does anyone have a special tutorial that they could suggest?
Thanks for any and all comments

Click to expand...

The choice of SQL won't necessarily make much difference to the reporting experience. Possibly it will make reporting run quicker but that may be all. The choice of reporting tool is what really matters. There are lots of great reporting tools to choose from: PowerBI, Tableau, QlikView. Any modern reporting software can take you way beyond what is feasible in Access - but whether that's good for you all depends on what your needs are.

I need reports that are loaded with conditional fields and maybe some conditional images.

Click to expand...

Getting information out of a database depends on what is in the database and the structure of the database (tables and relationships).
As sneuberg said the Steve Bishop series is great for vba and concepts with great examples and discussion. There are also several free tutorials by Richard Rost (599CD is his youtube name)
However, you have not given us any detail regarding your database or the business it is intended to support. We really need to know your requirements.
If this is your first, or you are new to database, then these free videos (#1,2 and 4) of the Daniel Soper series that starts here will help with database concepts.

Good luck with your project.

What really matters are the underlying SQL Statements. Understanding SQL statements matters to what and how the information is rendered. I may be corrected but SQL Server parse the SQL Statement second to last and internally defined Expressions cannot be used whilst Access Expression with a SQL Statement can be re-used.

Access reporting is very good and coupled with PowerBI has the ability to visually highlight variances, trends and ratios. I use both the 64bit and 32bit versions.

Remember SQL Server is is a data store within tables. Access has either the Jet or Ace (backend) database, where Access is different are the Forms. The more I read about SQL Server you seem to be a slave to the data storage whereas Access allows the data to tell its story.

A reporting tool is a reporting tool I have used some pretty elementary reporting tools, band printers and line flow and each time a new tools appears the question you should ask is it going to add value to your business reporting or nowadays Business Intelligence. The real intelligence is what you present and the saliency or pertinence of the information to the business.


It is a thoughtful process not just a procedure.


Simon