Access Version: All

One of the problems with MS Access is that it allows you to do a lot of things that you really should not do, for example adding formats to tables. Here is why adding formats to tables is a bad idea.

1. Create a table

This table has an ID and a Date duplicated to provide 4 fields, 2 of which have formats applied, as you can see below.

![create a table][1]

2. Add three records

As you can see, the data added to the plain field and the formated field is exactly the same.

![Add three records][2]

3. View the table

Well, this looks fine.

![View the table][3]

4. Experience problems

You cannot run a query to get WF-2, it does not exist, the field contains 2, but the format means that anyone viewing the table will be confused about this.

![Experience problems query 1][4]

This query looks like it should work, but it will not, the field does not contain Date(), that is, 2013/03/13, it contains date and time. This is particularly confusing to the user, and will not help at all if you want to get rid of the time part.

![Experience problems query 2][5]

5. Just to be sure

You can run code to see what the fields contain, and add more confusion when it does not match the view of the table.

![Experience problems query 2][6]

6. Which is why

Adding formats to tables just disguises content and should be avoided. Adding formats to forms is a completely different story, and quite acceptable.

[1]: http://ltd.remou.com/access/format/createtable.jpg “” [2]: http://ltd.remou.com/access/format/addrecords.jpg “” [3]: http://ltd.remou.com/access/format/viewtable.jpg “” [4]: http://ltd.remou.com/access/format/runquery.jpg “” [5]: http://ltd.remou.com/access/format/runquerydate.jpg “” [6]: http://ltd.remou.com/access/format/contents.jpg “”