Why is an action query not working in access VBA? - sql

Question

I tested an UPDATE query in Access's query design, and it works, but when I try to use it in my module, I get the error:
Invalid SQL statement; expected... or 'UPDATE'.
My query:
strSql = "UPDATE " & rs.Fields("tableName") & _
" SET " & rs.Fields("foreignKeyName") & " = " & rsContacts.Fields("contactId") & _
" WHERE contactId = " & ContactID
rs: a table that has tableName, foriegnKeyName of the tables to update
rsContacts: a list of contactIds (currently standing on a particular one).
The actual string comes out like this:
UPDATE myTable SET ContactId = 5 WHERE contactId = 2
If the query works, and it is an action query, why am I getting this error?
This is my full code:
Public Sub updateChildTables(ByVal ContactID As Long, ByVal CompanyID As Long)
Dim strSql As String
Dim rs As Recordset
Dim rsPending As Recordset
strSql = "SELECT contactID FROM contacts _
WHERE companyId = " & CompanyID & " and contactId <> " & ContactID
Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(strSql)
If Not (rs.BOF And rs.EOF) Then
rs.MoveFirst
strSql = "SELECT * FROM childTables"
Set rsChild = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(strSql)
rsChild.MoveFirst
Do While Not rsChild.EOF
strSql = "UPDATE " & rsChild.Fields("tableName") & " SET " & rsChild.Fields("foreignKeyName") & " = " & rs.Fields("contactId") & " WHERE contactId = " & ContactID
DoCmd.RunSQL strSql
rs.moveNext
Loop
rsChild.Close
Set rsChild = Nothing
End If

Answer 1

Here is my idea for debugging and possibly even resolving this.
Create a query from within Access normally -- name it UpdateMyTable, for the sake of this example.
Then, rather than using the DoCmd, actually execute this specific query from your VBA.
Dim qry As QueryDef
strSql = "UPDATE " & rsChild.Fields("tableName") & " SET " & _
rsChild.Fields("foreignKeyName") & " = " & _
rs.Fields("contactId") & " WHERE contactId = " & ContactID
Set qry = CurrentDb.QueryDefs("UpdateMyTable")
qry.SQL = strSql
qry.Execute
The big advantage of this is that you can very easily debug this from within Access to both see the rendered SQL and manually run it / tweak it.