Question

I want to create a new record in the mailers table, where three fields would contain values: contacts_first_filter_id, mailer_states_id, created_at. And two of those values are based off queries from other tables and the last one is just the current time.

I’ve tried multiple ways to achieve this but none have worked. First I tried creating a query directly within sql design:

INSERT INTO mailers ( contacts_first_filter_id, mailer_states_id, created_at )
VALUES (DLookup("id","update_mailer_step_two"), DLookup("id","mailer_states" & "mailer_state = 'sent'"), Now());

This gives error ‘unknown’.

I also tried putting this in VBA editor and triggering it on a button click:

Private Sub Command6_Click()


        Dim CFF_ID As String, MS_ID As String, strSQL As String

        CFF_ID = "SELECT update_mailer_step_two.id FROM update_mailer_step_two"

        MS_ID = "SELECT mailer_states.id FROM mailer_states WHERE mailer_states.mailer_state = 'sent'"

        strSQL = "INSERT INTO mailers ( contacts_first_filter_id, mailer_states_id, created_at )VALUES ((" & CFF_ID & "),(" & MS_ID & "),NOW())"

        DoCmd.RunSQL strSQL

End Sub

This gives error:
“Query input must contain at least one table or query”.

I tried the recommendation below using INNER JOIN but while this produces no error, it appends 0 rows, presumably because there is no INNER JOIN link between update_mailer_step_two and mailer_states:

INSERT INTO mailers ( contacts_first_filter_id, mailer_states_id, created_at )
SELECT update_mailer_step_two.id, mailer_states.id, Now()
FROM update_mailer_step_two INNER JOIN mailer_states ON update_mailer_step_two.id = mailer_states.ID
WHERE mailer_states.mailer_state = 'sent';

mailer_states table is just a table that contains a mailer_state field with text. It’s pretty much just a lookup table that never changes.

update_mailer_step_2 contains one field called id, which contains a bunch of ids associated with contacts in database.
Hence, there’s no relationship at all between mailer_states and update_mailer_step_2.

** What I thought I would be able to do is when I create update_mailer_step_two, add a new column and default it with a value corresponding to mailer_states so that the INNER JOIN would work. Unfortunately, it appears you cannot do this in Access!

Another stackoverflow post mentioned you can:

SQL to add column with default value – Access 2003

But it is not working for me.

I have run out of ideas of how to place a query based off other table as a value to a query that is intended to create a new record in a table.

Thanks for response.

Answer 1

Your first approach (using a query containing calls to DLookup) should in principle work, but it has a syntax error. The suggestion by @HansUp to run each DLookup individually is a good one, and would help you to identify this (in the Visual Basic Editor, press Ctrl-G to show the intermediate window; the question mark before each expression in @HansUp’s example is required).

Specifically, the ampersand in the second DLookup call is the string concatenation character, meaning that your current call is equivalent to:

DLookup("id","mailer_statesmailer_state = 'sent'")

Instead, change it to:

DLookup("id","mailer_states", "mailer_state = 'sent'")

EXTRA

To insert one new row for each row in update_mailer_step_two, try this:

INSERT INTO mailers ( contacts_first_filter_id, mailer_states_id, created_at )
SELECT update_mailer_step_two.id,
       DLookup("id","mailer_states", "mailer_state = 'sent'"),
       Now()
FROM update_mailer_step_two