I am new to Access and would appreciate if someone could help me with the following problem:

I have constructed a front-end database which accesses a number of tables in a separate back-end database. The link between front- and back-end is set up via the Linked Table Manager.

Is there a way in Visual Basic to find out to which value the string is set that specifies the path to the back-end database?

I would like to check that the tables have not moved before the first call to a table in the back-end is made, and deal with any errors that might occur.

Also, as the Seek operation is not allowed on linked tables I thought to circumvent this by opening these tables via an external link as suggested in Chapter 6 of Access 2003 VBA. I would like to use a variable for the pathname to the back-end database and pick up its value from Access rather than hard-code a path as the final location of the database is not yet known.

Thanks for any advice you can give,

Astrid Van Maanen

I am also interested in finding the string that specifies the path to my back end database

Tommy

Here's a solution:

'================================================= ==============
' The GetLinkedDBName() function requires the name of a
' linked Microsoft Access table, in quotation marks, as an
' argument. The function returns the full path of the originating
' database if successful, or returns 0 if unsuccessful.
'================================================= ==============

Function GetLinkedDBName (TableName As String)
   Dim db As DAO.Database, Ret
   On Error GoTo DBNameErr
   Set db = CurrentDb()
   Ret = db.TableDefs(TableName).Connect
   GetLinkedDBName = Right(Ret, Len(Ret) - (InStr _
      (1, Ret, "DATABASE=") + 8))
   Exit Function
DBNameErr:
   GetLinkedDBName = 0
End Function

Thank you very much for your reply; I have now tried it and it is exactly what I was looking for!

Astrid Van Maanen