In an Access desktop database, the MsgBox function displays a message in a dialog box, waits for the user to select a button, and returns an Integer that indicates which button the user selected.
Syntax
MsgBox(prompt[, buttons][, title][, helpfile][, context])
The MsgBox function syntax has these arguments:
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
prompt |
Required. String expression displayed as the message in the dialog box. The maximum length of prompt is about 1024 characters, depending on the width of the characters used. If prompt has more than one line, you can separate the lines by using a carriage return character (Chr(13)), a linefeed character (Chr(10)), or a carriage return-linefeed combination (Chr(13) & Chr(10)) between each line. |
buttons |
Optional. Numeric expression that is the sum of values that specify the number and type of buttons to display, the icon style to use, the identity of the default button, and the modality of the message box. If omitted, the default value for buttons is 0. |
title |
Optional. String expression displayed in the title bar of the dialog box. If you omit title, the application name appears in the title bar. |
helpfile |
Optional. String expression that identifies the Help file to use to provide context-sensitive Help for the dialog box. If helpfile is provided, context must also be provided. |
context |
Optional. Numeric expression that is the Help context number assigned to the appropriate Help topic by the Help author. If context is provided, helpfile must also be provided. |
Settings
The buttons argument settings are:
| Constant | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
vbOKOnly |
0 |
Display OK only. |
vbOKCancel |
1 |
Display OK and Cancel. |
vbAbortRetryIgnore |
2 |
Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore. |
vbYesNoCancel |
3 |
Display Yes, No, and Cancel. |
vbYesNo |
4 |
Display Yes and No. |
vbRetryCancel |
5 |
Display Retry and Cancel. |
vbCritical |
16 |
Display the Critical Message icon. |
vbQuestion |
32 |
Display the Warning Query icon. |
vbExclamation |
48 |
Display the Warning Message icon. |
vbInformation |
64 |
Display the Information Message icon. |
vbDefaultButton1 |
0 |
Make the first button the default. |
vbDefaultButton2 |
256 |
Make the second button the default. |
vbDefaultButton3 |
512 |
Make the third button the default. |
vbDefaultButton4 |
768 |
Make the fourth button the default. |
vbApplicationModal |
0 |
Application modal. The user must respond to the message box before continuing work in the current application. |
vbSystemModal |
4096 |
System modal. All applications are suspended until the user responds to the message box. |
vbMsgBoxHelpButton |
16384 |
Add a Help button to the message box. |
VbMsgBoxSetForeground |
65536 |
Specify the message box window as the foreground window. |
vbMsgBoxRight |
524288 |
Right-align the text. |
vbMsgBoxRtlReading |
1048576 |
Make the text appear with right-to-left reading on Hebrew and Arabic systems. |
The first group of values (0 through 5) describes the number and type of buttons displayed in the dialog box. The second group (16, 32, 48, 64) describes the icon style. The third group (0, 256, 512) determines which button is the default. The fourth group (0, 4096) determines the modality of the message box. When you add numbers to create a final value for the buttons argument, use only one number from each group.
Note
These constants are specified by Visual Basic for Applications. As a result, you can use the names anywhere in your code instead of the actual values.
Return values
| Constant | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
vbOK |
1 |
OK |
vbCancel |
2 |
Cancel |
vbAbort |
3 |
Abort |
vbRetry |
4 |
Retry |
vbIgnore |
5 |
Ignore |
vbYes |
6 |
Yes |
vbNo |
7 |
No |
Remarks
When both helpfile and context are provided, the user can press F1 in Windows or Help in macOS to view the Help topic that matches context. Some host applications, such as Microsoft Excel, also automatically add a Help button to the dialog box.
If the dialog box displays a Cancel button, pressing Esc has the same effect as selecting Cancel. If the dialog box contains a Help button, context-sensitive Help is provided for the dialog box. However, no value is returned until the user selects one of the other buttons.
Note
To specify more than the first named argument, you must use MsgBox in an expression. To omit some positional arguments, you must include the corresponding comma delimiter.
Example
Note
The following example demonstrates how to use this function in a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) module.
This example uses the MsgBox function to display a critical-error message in a dialog box with Yes and No buttons. The No button is specified as the default response. The value returned by the MsgBox function depends on the button that the user selects. This example assumes that DEMO.HLP is a Help file that contains a topic with a Help context number equal to 1000.
Dim Msg, Style, Title, Help, Ctxt, Response, MyString
Msg = "Do you want to continue?"
Style = vbYesNo + vbCritical + vbDefaultButton2
Title = "MsgBox Demonstration"
Help = "DEMO.HLP"
Ctxt = 1000
Response = MsgBox(Msg, Style, Title, Help, Ctxt)
If Response = vbYes Then ' User chose Yes.
MyString = "Yes" ' Perform some action.
Else ' User chose No.
MyString = "No" ' Perform some action.
End If