How to create early or late binding in MS Access Application?

We provide custom software development services and also help many companies to convert ms access application to web based solution. This way these companies can run their application from anywhere in the world. In addition, our MS Access Developers maintain and improve MS Access applications all over the world.

Today, we are going to discuss about early or late binding implementation in MS Access Application. You may see actual code when you scroll down.

When it comes to automation, MS Access Developers often have to decide between early or late binding, especially when referring to other MS Office applications.

The main reason is due to the multiple MS Access versions through the years, 97, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010 etc. To ensure backward compatibility between versions, it is normally better to use late binding since early binding, could result in non-operation or system crashes because the Library reference made will fail.

This article will explained the difference between early and late binding to make the decision easier when doing custom software development.

Early Binding:

The link between the application and the object, is hard coded by using the object’s unique identified, to flag references using the Windows registry.

This results in faster access at runtime, but the disadvantage is that in most cases the version of MS Access that was used for developing, must be the same as the MS Access version where it is deployed. In some cases it is backward compatible. It is therefore necessary to test compatibility.

Late Binding:

This method allows you to load a variety of different objects (with the correct parameters).
The method is slower access at runtime, due to a larger executable because code needs to search for the object's methods and properties at runtime.

The advantage is that the method is compatible between all versions of MS Access / MS Office.

See below VB Code Examples:

Early binding vb code:

Set reference to 'Microsoft Excel 8.0 Object Library' in the Project|References dialog (or Tools|References for VB4 or VBA). Declare the object as an early-bound object.

Late binding vb code:

No reference to a type library is needed to use late binding. As long as the object supports IDispatch, the method can be dynamically located and invoked at run-time. Declare the object as a late-bound object.

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