Inherited MS Access Database, Tracking Sources of Queries - vba

Question

I have just inherited a database at my new company. Old DB owner left no good documentation and queries very hard to keep track of. Looking for programmatic answer to track sources of fields in every query (what table it come from). Prefer something can be exported to Excel to study, Access visualization is no good. Am familiar with VBA.

Answer 1

This is pretty messy but could save you time collecting each query's SQL code. The following code exports all SQL stored in the QueryDefs collection into a text file. I have it splitting the code with a space delimiter, but a comma might be preferable. The data will not be normalized, I don't have the time to go to that level of complexity. Just make sure to update strPath before you execute. Hopefully this helps.
Sub PullQuerySQL()
Dim dbs As Database
Dim i As Integer
Dim fso As Object
Dim oFile As Object
Dim varParse() As String
Dim element As Variant
Dim strPath As String
strPath = ".txt"
Set dbs = CurrentDb()
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFile = fso.CreateTextFile(strPath)
For i = 0 To dbs.QueryDefs.Count - 1
oFile.WriteLine dbs.QueryDefs(i).Name
varParse = Split(dbs.QueryDefs(i).SQL, " ")
For Each element In varParse
oFile.WriteLine element
Next element
Next i
oFile.Close
Set oFile = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing
Set dbs = Nothing
End Sub

Answer 2

I have been through this with many inherited databases. I find it extremely helpful to create an Access table with the fields and the tables/queries that they come from. Try this code below. It will prompt you for the name of the query that you are looking to "map" as I call it. It will then create a new table named "queryName Definitions".
Option Compare Database
Public Sub MapQuery()
Dim strQueryName As String
Dim rst As DAO.Recordset
Dim fld As Field
Dim strSource As String
Dim strField As String
Dim strValue As String
Dim strSQL1 As String
Dim strSQL2 As String
Dim booExists As Boolean
strQueryName = InputBox("Please enter the name of the query that you are looking to map")
Set rst = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(strQueryName)
On Error GoTo error1
booExists = IsObject(CurrentDb.TableDefs(strQueryName & " Definitions"))
DoCmd.DeleteObject acTable, strQueryName & " Definitions"
continue:
strSQL1 = "CREATE TABLE [" & strQueryName & " Definitions]" & " (FieldName CHAR, SourceName CHAR);"
DoCmd.RunSQL (strSQL1)
DoCmd.SetWarnings False
For Each fld In rst.Fields
strField = fld.Name
strSource = fld.SourceTable
Debug.Print strValue
strSQL2 = "INSERT INTO [" & strQueryName & " Definitions]" & "(FieldName, SourceName) VALUES(""" & strField & """, """ & strSource & """);"
DoCmd.RunSQL (strSQL2)
Next fld
error1:
If Err.Number = 3265 Then
Resume continue
Else
MsgBox Err.Description
End If
DoCmd.SetWarnings True
Exit Sub
DoCmd.SetWarnings True
End Sub