Question

I have a custom build print dialog that is used for many reports. Its arguments are the report name, filter string, open args for the report etc. What I would like to do is to display the caption of the report specified for printing on the form. For performance reasons, I would rather not open the report, get the caption and close it again. I would rather get it from the database somehow without actually opening the report itself.

One thing that DOES work is to call the report using it’s class name report_some_report.caption but there is no way to do this without with a report name stored in a variable. I would have expected Reports("some_report").caption to work also but it only works for open reports.

Is there a better way to do this or am I going to have to do something like the following? (Which works)

docmd.OpenReport "schedule_simple",acViewDesign,,,acHidden
strCaption = Reports("schedule_simple").Caption
docmd.Close acReport,"schedule_simple"

Answer 1

There’s no way to get a report caption from a report without first opening the report or using the report class object (as you know). It’s also worth noting that “lightweight” reports (ie, ones whose HasModule property = False) do not have class objects.

You have a couple of options.

1. You could create a local table with a RptName and RptCaption field and query that. Of course, then you need to keep it updated somehow.

2. You could write a function that “memoizes” the results, so that you only have to open a given report once each time the program runs. For example:
   .

   Function GetReportCaption(RptName As String) As String
   Static RptCaptions As Collection
   
       If RptCaptions Is Nothing Then Set RptCaptions = New Collection
       On Error Resume Next
       GetReportCaption = RptCaptions(RptName)
       If Err.Number = 0 Then Exit Function
       On Error GoTo 0
   
       DoCmd.OpenReport RptName, acViewDesign, , , acHidden
       RptCaptions.Add Reports(RptName).Caption, RptName
       DoCmd.Close acReport, RptName
   
       GetReportCaption = RptCaptions(RptName)
   End Function