Access has a nearly hidden feature that lets you make quick, basic calculations with an entire column of numeric values.
For example, you can use this to get the average price from a table of products, or the total contributions from a table of donations.
Here is how it works:
- Choose Home.Records.Totals. An extra row appears at the bottom of the datasheet, with the word "Total" at the far left.
- Click in the totals row, under the column you want to use for your calculation.
A drop-down list appears with different types of calculations
- Choose the type of calculation you want to perform. Access shows the calculated value under the column. If you add a record or modify a value in the column, Access update the totals immediately. You can repeat step 2 and 3 to pick totals for as many columns as you want, The totals row is a simple, straightforward tool. One nice feature is that it respects your filtering settings, so if you have filtered the table to show just five rows, only five rows are used to calculate the totals.