Richard,

A sort of generic question for you.  I have worked may way through these lessons and put what I have learned to good use in my Ambulance Service database.  I just bought and went through your seminar on relationships and learned much more. I am anticpating taking the SQL seminar and was wondering if knowing SQL would replace the need to use datasets or is there a need to use both disciplines?  Are recordsets a precurser to using SQL?

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Reply from Richard Rost:

They compliment each other pretty well. You can learn one or both and use each of them quite well together, in fact.

If anything, I should have made a comprehensive SQL series BEFORE recordsets. I personally think that recordsets are MUCH more powerful than SQL, however SQL is good for short, quick operations (like quickly deleting, adding, or editing some records). And so many things in Access are based on SQL (listboxes, combo boxes, subforms, etc.) that it really helps to fully understand how the SQL language works.

HOWEEVER that being said, if you have anything COMPLEX to do, recordsets are the way to go. A lot of what I taught in AC320-329 probably COULD have been done with SQL, but it was necessary to show you simple recordsets in order to build up to more complex ones.

Learning both will make you a very well-rounded developer... and I'm not just saying that so you buy more lessons. However, if I had to pick one over the other, I'd probably go with recordsets myself. I use them a lot more often.