Question

This is by no means essential, but I would like to find out how to create more efficient code, and i’m sure this is far from efficient!

On the form disabled fields values are cleared before the form is saved.

The below code send a message to the user to inform them that they may lose some data if they leave a checkbox unchecked.
In the context of the form it all makes sense, i would just like to know a simpler methodology, i’m sure i could use an array somewhere but cant quite figure it out.

Dim couldLoseData As Boolean
Dim msgStr As String

couldLoseData = False

If (Me.chkInvSent = False) And (Not IsNull(Me.invoicedDate)) Then
        couldLoseData = True
        msgStr = "Invoice Sent"
End If
If (Me.chkFeePaid = False) And (Not IsNull(Me.datePaid)) Then
    couldLoseData = True
    If msgStr = "" Then
    msgStr = "Claim Fee Paid"
    Else
    msgStr = msgStr & " / Claim Fee Paid"
    End If
End If
If (Me.chkFeeLodged = False) And (Not IsNull(Me.lodgedDate)) Then
    couldLoseData = True
        If msgStr = "" Then
        msgStr = "Fee Lodged"
        Else
        msgStr = msgStr & " / Fee Lodged"
        End If
End If
If couldLoseData = True Then
    If MsgBox("You will lose data in the following areas as the relevant checkboxes are unticked." & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & _
        msgStr & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "Do you wish to continue?", vbYesNo, dbNameOf) = vbNo Then
        Cancel = True
    End If
Else
    '
'
'
'   Procedure that gets carried out here

End If

No biggie but if any one could offer me a simpler solution it would be appreciated.

Cheers

Noel

Answer 1

I’m not sure why you think you should be using arrays. When it comes to the msgStr variable logic I would just put in the following:

msgStr = msgStr & "Invoice Sent / "

rather than the five lines of If msgstr = “” Then, etc, etc, End If lines.

Then at the end I would put in the following line

msgStr = lef(msgStr, len(msgStr) - 3) ' remove the trailing /

This then removes the trailing ” / “

Purists will tell you that you should never add anything to a string you later remove. I say, so long as you leave a comment there for the next person who is reading your code, this reduces complexity of your preceding lines of code making it much easier to grasp exactly what is going on.

Whenever I’m looking for a value to be returned from a MsgBox I place the string creating in a separate line of code. Thus is much easier to see, at a glance, exactly what the code is doing.

strMsg = "You will lose data in the following areas as the relevant checkboxes are unticked." & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & _
    msgStr & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "Do you wish to continue?"
If MsgBox(strMsg, vbYesNo, dbNameOf) <> vbYes Then _
    Cancel = True

If I’m only setting one value in the If statement, such as you show, I will also put in the _ and thus not require the End If.

I also prefer <> vbYes just in case something wonky should happen or if someone, not you of course, mucks with the msgbox options.