Fabricating Hierarchical Recordsets

The following example shows how to fabricate a hierarchical Recordset without an underlying data source by using the data shaping grammar to define columns for parent, child, and grandchild Recordsets.

To fabricate a hierarchical Recordset, you must specify the Microsoft Data Shaping Service for OLE DB (MSDataShape), and you may specify a Data Provider value of NONE in the connection string parameter of the Connection object's Open method. For more information, see Required Providers for Data Shaping.

Dim cn As New ADODB.Connection
Dim rsCustomers As New ADODB.Recordset

cn.Open "Provider=MSDataShape;Data Provider=NONE;"
 
strShape = _
"SHAPE APPEND NEW adInteger AS CustID," & _
            " NEW adChar(25) AS FirstName," & _
            " NEW adChar(25) AS LastName," & _
            " NEW adChar(12) AS SSN," & _
            " NEW adChar(50) AS Address," & _
         " ((SHAPE APPEND NEW adChar(80) AS VIN_NO," & _
                        " NEW adInteger AS CustID," & _
                        " NEW adChar(20) AS BodyColor, " & _
                     " ((SHAPE APPEND NEW adChar(80) AS VIN_NO," & _
                                    " NEW adChar(20) AS Make, " & _
                                    " NEW adChar(20) AS Model," & _
                                    " NEW adChar(4) AS Year) " & _
                        " AS VINS RELATE VIN_NO TO VIN_NO))" & _
            " AS Vehicles RELATE CustID TO CustID) "
 
rsCustomers.Open strShape, cn, adOpenStatic, adLockOptimistic, -1

Once the Recordset has been fabricated, it can be populated, manipulated, or persisted to a file.

See Also

Accessing Rows in a Hierarchical Recordset | Formal Shape Grammar | Required Providers for Data Shaping | Shape APPEND Clause | Shape Commands in General