Sort order in the Expression Builder

[JohnH]

The middle box of the Expression Builder lists all the objects on a selected form or report.

I often find it hard to find things in the list as they seem to be in a completely random order.
Or is there some order there that I can't see? (They are certainly not in alpha order, nor the order in which they are added to the form, nor the Tab order)

[HansV]

I can't find out if there is any logic to the order in which the objects are listed either. As far as I know, there is no way to change this order.

[JohnH]

Thanks for looking.

[agibsonsw]

I assumed they are in the order of the "control order" on the form. That is, the order in which controls were added to the form or the Tab Order if this has been changed.
But I've never checked this. Andy.

[HansV]

It appears to be neither the tab order nor the order in which the controls were created, but a kind of mixture of these...

[agibsonsw]

Maybe it's in a 'short-term' memory order
"There was a text box and, oh I remember now, a label,..."

[JohnH]

That is, the order in which controls were added to the form or the Tab Order

I did a test where I added a control to a complex form. Most of the stuff already there is on the various pages of a tab control. So the new control was given a tab index of 2.

In the expression builder the new control appeared down towards the bottom, but still some way from last.

[Rui]

That is, the order in which controls were added to the form or the Tab Order

I did a test where I added a control to a complex form. Most of the stuff already there is on the various pages of a tab control. So the new control was given a tab index of 2.

In the expression builder the new control appeared down towards the bottom, but still some way from last.

Yes, it happened just like that with me too. I was ready to swear it was the creation order that mattered, until I saw that happening .

[JohnH]

I am not sure whether this helps much, but I have found that the order in the Expression Builder is the same as in the list produced by this routing.

Code: Select all

Public Sub sbListControls(frmForm As Form)
    Dim ctrl As Control
    For Each ctrl In frmForm.Controls
        Debug.Print ctrl.Name
    Next ctrl
    Set ctrl = Nothing
End Sub