How can I bind a multi-row update or insert statement to a form? - sql

Question

I have a table Prices:
ID -- primary key, autonumber long integer
PriceDate -- Date
Price - Currency
Quantity - Number, DECIMAL subtype
UnitPrice - Number, DECIMAL subtype (an update statement is run to keep this in synch with price and quantity, but it's just a convenience for indexing... probably it'll be replaced with an expression in my queries)
ItemNote - Text
NewStores_ID - long integer key, lookup to another table of stores
NewItems_ID - long integer key, lookup to another table of items
To enter prices for a given store on a given day, I would like to be able to select the store and date ONCE on a form, then enter the items individually in a datasheet. For reasons unexplained, this proves difficult.
I can create a subform binding everything but the store and price to a temp table TempPrices with the same structure as the original. Then I run the SQL statement
INSERT INTO Prices
(PriceDate,Price,Quantity,UnitPrice,Brand,ItemNote,NewStores_ID,NewItems_ID)
SELECT
PriceDate,Price,Quantity,Price/Quantity AS
UnitPrice,Brand,ItemNote,NewStores_ID,NewItems_ID)
FROM Temp_Prices;
This will feed all the new rows into the main table. But, when I want to set the store and date only once, I run into problems. I've tried using named parameters for date an store in the insert statement... which can cause a pop-up prompt, but I cannot bind it to a form control. I've tried binding an update statement for those fields in the temp table to a form... but it doesn't even show an option to bind a multi-row update.
How can I get this to work with a minimum of clumsy hackery? It seems like there ought to be a simple solution, and if I were using something like PHP or JDBC I'd just run an extra query.
Edit: changed storage type for Quantity and UnitPrice to Number, Decimal subtype in place of double float. Just so people won't cry about using a float in any proximity to currency. It doesn't pose a problem in my use, but there are enough people who have a knee-jerk reaction to that.
Edit 2: Form/Subform
I'm trying to structure this as a master form with a either fields for entering store name and date, or a subform for the same, then a subform mapping to the temporary table for entering pricing data. There is an action button to run the insert/update queries to dump the temp table into my main prices table and clear out the temp table. However, the problem is that I can't figure out how to get the date/store fields in the master (or subform) to bind to an insert/update value applied to all the new rows at once.
Edit 3: SQL Statements (for clarity)
INSERT INTO
PRICES(NewStores_ID,PriceDate,NewItems_ID,Brand,Price,Quantity,
UnitPrice,ItemNote)
SELECT
#MyStore_ID,#MyPriceDate,NewItems_ID,Brand,Price,Quantity,
Price/Quantity,ItemNote
FROM TempPrices;
UPDATE TempPrices SET PriceDate=#MyPriceDate,NewStores_ID=#MyStoreID;
For these queries, I cannot bind parameters for #MyStore_ID or #MyPriceDate to fields in any form. The queries don't show up as options when trying to link them to a form. I can run them and get popup boxes to input parameters, but that's not what I want.

Answer 1

This is the target I'm aiming at:
"I would like to be able to select the store and date ONCE on a form, then enter the items individually in a datasheet."
However, if you have a reason why you need to do it with a temp table and DML statements, then this suggestion will not be useful.
I created a Prices table with only 4 fields, then a query on that table which I used as the Record Source for a form, "fsubPrices":
SELECT p.ID, p.NewStores_ID, p.PriceDate, p.Price
FROM Prices AS p
ORDER BY p.NewStores_ID, p.PriceDate;
The form has text boxes (txtNewStores_ID, txtPriceDate, and txtPrice) bound to the similarly-named query fields. I set Enabled=Yes for txtPrice, and Enabled=No for the other two.
Then I created an unbound form "frmPrices", and in the form header added a combo box "cboStores" and a text box "txtPriceDate". The combo has Bound Column = 1 with this query for its Row Source:
SELECT l.Store_ID, l.Store_name FROM tblkupStores AS l ORDER BY l.Store_name;
Then I added fsubPrices as a subform control to the detail section of frmPrices. The tricky part is setting the Link Master/Child Fields. There is a "wizardy dialog thing", but it will only allow you to select from the available fields, and I needed to link controls on the main form with fields on the subform. To do that, I had to type what I wanted directly into the subform control's property sheet:
Link Child Fields......NewStores_ID;PriceDate
Link Master Fields.....cboStores;txtPriceDate
The result is ... choose a store and date combination in the main form ... any matching records are displayed in the subform. You can navigate to the "new record" in the subform to add records for that store/date combination. But the txtNewStores_ID and txtPriceDate controls don't show the updated values until the new record is saved.
I hope this is close to what you want. It's actually fairly quick and easy to create; not so easy to describe.

Answer 2

You can't really do that. You are always going to have one row being worked with at a time.
What you can do is simulate it by changing the form's Default View from "Single Form" to "Continuous Form" or perhaps "Data sheet" and making is a child(sub) form of a master form.
Then you can put the store and date on the Master form, and linking to the child form using the NewStores_ID and PriceDate fields.