What Is Access 2007 VBA?

VBA is an acronym that stands for Visual Basic for Applications. VBA is included as part of several Microsoft products, including Access, Word, and Excel. For example, Access 2007 VBA uses VBA version 6.0, which is the same version of VBA used by Word 2007 VBA and Excel 2007 VBA. VBA is a programming language that can be used to add additional features to your applications. You are no doubt already aware that Access is a powerful database application that also enables you to create applications that include user interfaces. You can use VBA instead of or in addition to Access macros to provide advanced functionality to those Access applications. For example, you might use an AutoExec macro to control which form loads when the application begins, and then write the business logic that controls how the application works using VBA.

VBA should not be confused with the Microsoft Visual Basic (VB) or Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) programming products. VB and VB.NET have their own syntaxes for the Visual Basic programming language. The VB syntax, the VB.NET syntax, and the VBA syntax are very similar, but they have some differences. Unlike Access, the VB and VB.NET products do not have a built-in database. The Visual Basic and Visual Basic .NET programming products are typically used in building more complex enterprise applications that use Access, SQL Server, or Oracle as the database. Access 2007 VBA is typically used to build small and simple Access database applications designed for a few users. The experience you gain writing VBA code in Access or other Microsoft Office application products will certainly be helpful if you ever decide to use the Microsoft VB or VB.NET programming products. Microsoft has a development solution called Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office that allows Microsoft Office products, including Access 2007, to call code that is written in a .NET programming language.