Need top3 records in MS Access - vba

Question

I have to create a text box in MS Access where users are able to see the top 3 records of a particular result set. So even if the query results in 5 records I only want it to display the top 3 records as three textboxes (sometimes the result may also be 1,2 or 0 records).
I took the easy way out and created a new subform which was connected to the parent form using master/child field. The textbox was placed in the details part of the subform and as a recordsource of the subfrom used the following query:
Select top 3 tbl1.column1, tbl1.column2
from tbl1
column1 is the control source for the textbox and column2 is the column I have used for master/child link.
Now the catch is that the query works fine when I use it without top 3. But when I use top 3 the textbox suddenly disappears and the subform is completely blank.
I am not able to identify the cause of the error. My guess is that it has something to do with type of the subform. Not sure.
Is there any other way I can have a text box whose number can vary on the basis of the results?(but limiting the resultset to 3)
Appreciate the help.

Answer 1

Textbox are not meant to hold more than 1 value.
You are trying to assign three results of 2 columns to one textbox(No can do).
Use listbox to populate as you are doing, assigning the query you just wrote in the rowsource of the list(no subforms needed). This way users will see the three records.

Answer 2

You could use a textbox in order to accomplish what you are trying to do. But will require some VBA coding to accomplish this.
Public function CombineValuesForTextBox() as string
Dim rst as dao.recordset
Dim strSQL as string
strSQL = "SELECT TOP 3 tbl1.Column1 as field1, tbl1.Column2 as field2 " & _
"FROM tbl1;"
set rst = currentdb.openrecordset(strsql)
if rst.recordcount = 0 then 'Checks if the recordset has records or not
CombineValuesForTextBox = "No records found"
goto EndCode 'Or replace with what actions to take if no records are found
else
rst.movelast 'Forces the recordset to fully load
rst.movefirst
do while not rst.eof
if CombineValuesForTextBox = "" or CombineValuesForTextBox = empty then
CombineValuesForTextBox = rst![field1] & " - " & rst![Field2]
else
CombineValuesForTextBox = CombineValuesForTextBox & vbcrlf & _
rst![field1] & " - " & rst![Field2]
end if
Loop
end if
rst.close
set rst = nothing
EndCode:
if not rst is nothing then
rst.close
set rst = nothing
end if
end function
Then on your form put in the code (be sure the textbox is unbound...)
me.textbox = CombineValuesForTextBox