How can I list all the details, and also list subtotals by a subset of the itemID, and then a grand total. They were referring specifically to a report of the data.

Here is some fake data I created to illustrate.

itemid   cost
01142    $1.00
01222    $7.00
01333    $2.00
01623    $4.00
01777    $7.00
01997    $4.00
02456    $8.00
02556    $5.00
02666    $9.00
02716    $8.00
02796    $9.00
02916    $2.00
03455    $5.00
03485    $4.00
03555    $7.00
03675    $7.00
05666    $6.00
05886    $1.00

The report should look like this. (plus appropriate headers)

itemid   cost
01142    $1.00
01222    $7.00
01333    $2.00
01623    $4.00
01777    $7.00
01997    $4.00
01 subtotal = $25.00
02456    $8.00
02556    $5.00
02666    $9.00
02716    $8.00
02796    $9.00
02916    $2.00
02 subtotal = $41.00
03455    $5.00
03485    $4.00
03555    $7.00
03675    $7.00
03 subtotal = $23.00
05666    $6.00
05886    $1.00
05 subtotal = $7.00

grand total = $96.00

Here are the steps needed in Microsoft Access 2000. I am not putting in every small detail, as I believe you should think about what you are doing, and copying every tiny detail from me will not help you.

• start the report wizard, giving it the name of the table you are needing
• select the itemID and cost fields
• choose itemID as a grouping field
• click the Grouping Options button and choose a Grouping interval of “2 initial letters”
• no sorting is needed, but under Summary Options you want the Sum of the cost field
• pick a style and finish the report’s creation (Note: give it a proper name, like rptCosts, or similar)

The report is not quite what we wanted, but is close.

Next I went into the design view of the wizard created report and …

• deleted the “Summary for …” item from the itemID footer
• moved the “Left$ …” item from the itemID header to the itemID footer
• rearranged the objects in the itemID footer to better emulate the design I wanted
• went into the Sorting and Grouping section under the view menu
• changed the itemID Group Header to “No”
• continued to play with formatting until I had it the way I wanted it

See printouts, before and after changes, by clicking on the links in this sentence.

The key in my MS Access self-done education period was to use the wizard like we just did, and look at the design and especially properties of objects, and the Sorting and Grouping dialogue box. I experimented and discovered “stuff”.

Hopefully I can help you discover that “stuff” faster than I did, but in a way that still helps you “see” what is going on. Don’t ever depend solely on a recipe book. Discover the principles so that you can create your own recipes.

A reader wrote in to ask why they could not get their MS Access summary query working. They wanted a report like this.

Group       Budget      Actual
01          $ 34,000    $ 33,756
02          $ 75,000    $ 69,955
03          $ 12,000    $ 13,750
04          $ 25,000    $ 21,223

But their report looked like this.

Group       Budget      Actual
010250      $ 20,000    $ 20,000
010500      $ 14,000    $ 13,756
020722      $ 20,000    $ 13,455
020999      $ 55,000    $ 56,500
etc.

The thing is, that “Group” column is based on a BudgetCode field that has values like this.

010250
010500
020722
020999
etc.

The base query that gets us partway there is easily done using the Query Builder. (the steps that I followed below are based on Microsoft Access 2000, but easily translated to other versions)

• go to the query tab in Access
• click on “New”
• choose Design View and click OK
• select the table (or possibly another query) and click Add
• click Close
• drag the BudgetCode, BudgetAmount, and ActualAmount fields to the query grid
• click on the sum symbol (funny looking “E” in the toolbar)
• under the BudgetAmount and ActualAmount fields in the query grid, click on the Total cell
• from the drop down list choose Sum
• run the query (use the red exclamation mark in toolbar)

That gives us the report style that our reader initially created. With one minor change we will get the final result that we want, summarizing based on just the first 2 characters of the BudgetCode field.

• go back to design view (a little blue triangle symbol at the far left of the toolbar, or under the “View” menu)
• change the BudgetCode field name to this (without quotes) – “left([BudgetCode],2)”
• rerun the query

As a final note, let’s see what the actual “code” looks like. Under the View menu, choose the “SQL View”.

SELECT Left([BudgetCode],2) AS Expr1,
Sum(data.BudgetAmount) AS SumOfBudgetAmount,
Sum(data.ActualAmount) AS SumOfActualAmount
FROM data
GROUP BY Left([BudgetCode],2);

Cool!

As usual, leave comments about your success or questions. Thanks.