Validating dates

[Knackers]

I have two dtaes in a table - Start_date and End_date. How do I put a validation on End_date to ensure that it is greater than Start_date?

 

[andrewvanbeck]

It depends on what you wan't to happen when the end_date is before the start date, e.g.

In a query, replace the End_date column with:

end_date: =iif([end_date]<[start_date],[start_date],[end_date])

This would replace the end_date with the start_date if the end_date was before the start_date.

HTH

Andrew.

 

[Knackers]

Cheers Andrew.
All I really want to do is diplay a warning/notification that the end date must be after the start date.

Is there a way that I can just build a validation rule?

 

[andrewvanbeck]

You could make a little function that checks your two dates, I would do it like this:

Function end_date_check(start_date,end_date)
if end_date<start_date then
msgbox &quot;Your end date must be after the start date.&quot;
else
end_date_check=end_date
endif
end function

This will alert the user when it finds a date error, you may wan't it to return a specific date to signify an error (to make it easier to use in a query), if so, just remove set the end_date_check value after the msgbox.

To use it all you have to do is replace [end_date] with:

=end_date_check([start_date],[end_date])



HTH

Andrew.