ACC: How to Determine If a Date Falls on a Weekend or Holiday

• Microsoft Access version 7.0, 97

SUMMARY

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

This article demonstrates how to use Visual Basic for Applications to determine if a date falls on a weekend or holiday. This example is useful for setting due dates in applications that have billing or invoicing features.

This article assumes that you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information about Visual Basic for Applications, please refer to your version of the "Building Applications with Microsoft Access" manual.

MORE INFORMATION

The following sample procedure uses the WeekDay() function to determine if a specific date falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Then, it uses a DLookup() function to determine if it falls on a date stored in a user-created Holidays table.

Creating a Holidays Table

The following sample procedure requires a table with a particular structure for storing Holiday dates. You can follow these steps for creating the table and sample records:

1. Create a new table in Design view and add the following fields:

         Table: Holidays
         ---------------
         Field Name: Description
            Data Type: Text
         Field Name: HoliDate
            Date Type: Date/Time
   
   

2. Save the table as Holidays and switch the table to Datasheet view. Add the following records:

         Description                         HoliDate
         --------------------------------------------
         New Year's Day                      1/1/96
         Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (USA)   1/15/96
         Memorial Day (observed-USA)         5/27/96
         Labor Day (USA)                     9/2/96
   
   

3. Close and save the Holidays table.

Creating the Custom Procedure

To create a function that determines if a date falls on a weekend or holiday, follow these steps:

1. Create a new module in Design view.

2. Add the following function:

         Function OfficeClosed(TheDate) As Integer
         OfficeClosed = False
   

            ' Test for Saturday or Sunday.
            If WeekDay(TheDate) = 1 Or WeekDay(TheDate) = 7 Then
               OfficeClosed = True
            ' Test for Holiday.
            ElseIf Not IsNull(DLookup("HoliDate", "Holidays", "[HoliDate]=#" _
               & TheDate & "#")) Then
               OfficeClosed = True
            End If
   
         End Function
   
   

3. To test this function, type the following line into the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

         ? OfficeClosed(#9/2/96#)
   

   Note that this returns a True value (-1) because 9/2/96 is listed in the Holidays table.

Usage Example

You can use the custom OfficeClosed() function to calculate due dates. For example, if your office or business is closed for a 3-day weekend, you may want to extend your customers' grace period for their outstanding bills. Here's sample code for adding one more day to a grace period:

   DueDate=OrderDate+30
   Do While OfficeClosed(DueDate)
      DueDate=DateDue+1
   Loop

REFERENCES

For more information about the Weekday() function, search the Help Index for "weekday," or ask the Microsoft Access 97 Office Assistant.

For more information about the DLookup() function, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q108098
   TITLE     : ACC1x: DLookup() Usage, Examples, and Troubleshooting Tips

Keywords          : kbusage PgmHowTo
Version           : 7.0 97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Hardware          : x86
Issue type        : kbhowto