Question

I have this query that is supposed to be used in MS Access, but the database is an SQL database. When I run this query in an SQL environment, it works perfectly. However, when ran in MS Access, I get errors. I know little about SQL to begin with (coming from MySQL), and even less about MS Access.

The query is supposed to give me the total number of people within a certain bidder type who bid on an item (whether they won it or not), the total price of items won within that bidder type, and the bidder type, all for a single auction. Here is the query below.

SELECT     Total.count, SUM(dbo_tblItem.item_premium + dbo_tblItem.item_pr) AS SumTotal, dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type
FROM         dbo_tblBidder LEFT OUTER JOIN
                  dbo_tblItem ON dbo_tblItem.item_bidder_number = dbo_tblBidder.bidder_number   AND 
                  dbo_tblItem.item_sale_id = dbo_tblBidder.bidder_sale_id LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      (SELECT     COUNT(bidder_type) AS count, bidder_type
                        FROM          dbo_tblBidder AS tblBidder_1
                        WHERE      (bidder_sale_id = 235)
                        GROUP BY bidder_type) AS Total ON dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type = Total.bidder_type
WHERE     (dbo_tblBidder.bidder_sale_id = 235)
GROUP BY dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type, Total.count
ORDER BY dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type

MS Access tells me:

Syntax error (missing operator) in query expression “.

Then, it highlights “mber” from dbo_tblBidder.bidder_number where it says:

dbo_tblItem ON dbo_tblItem.item_bidder_number = dbo_tblBidder.bidder_number

I don’t know if the highlighting is actually part of anything or not.

Answer 1

When you join more than 2 tables, Access requires parentheses and is very finicky about their placement. (Although one of your query’s data sources is a subquery rather than an actual table, it’s treated same as a table regarding joins and parentheses.) Suggest you build this as a new query in Access’ query designer simply to see how it places the parentheses for your joined tables.

“count” is a reserved word, so I bracketed that name everywhere it appeared in the query to reduce the chance of confusing the database engine.

Use LEFT JOIN instead of LEFT OUTER JOIN for Access’ db engine.

I think this may be close to what you need.

SELECT
    Total.[count],
    SUM(dbo_tblItem.item_premium + dbo_tblItem.item_pr) AS SumTotal,
    dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type
FROM         
    (dbo_tblBidder LEFT JOIN dbo_tblItem
        ON (dbo_tblItem.item_bidder_number = dbo_tblBidder.bidder_number
           AND dbo_tblItem.item_sale_id = dbo_tblBidder.bidder_sale_id)
        )
    LEFT JOIN (
        SELECT     COUNT(bidder_type) AS [count], bidder_type
        FROM          dbo_tblBidder
        WHERE      bidder_sale_id = 235
        GROUP BY bidder_type
        ) AS Total
        ON dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type = Total.bidder_type
WHERE     dbo_tblBidder.bidder_sale_id = 235
GROUP BY dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type, Total.[count]
ORDER BY dbo_tblBidder.bidder_type;