Canceling out of a form

[ScubaBart]

So, I have options on some of my data forms where I can cancel out of making the entry and return to the previous form.



My code for that is basically this format

Private Sub Command_Cancel_Exit_Click()  'Removes any changes or entries and returns to the Inspection Log

    If (Forms!F_Log_Inspection_Apiary_Entry_Edit.Dirty = -1) Then
    
        DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdUndo
        
    End If
    
    DoCmd.Close acForm, "F_Log_Inspection_Apiary_Entry_Edit"
    Forms!F_Log_Inspection_Main.Visible = True
    DoCmd.Requery


End Sub

My question of the day is, if I have one or more subforms within the form, do I need to check Dirty for each subform as well as the main form or does the one condition cover everything ?

Reason I am asking is I am having trouble canceling out of a form with multiple subforms and I'm trying to narrow down possible causes.

[Welshgasman]

Each form is a separate object.

[Micron]

If you're editing a subform and you move off of it, chances are quite good that it's no longer dirty - you just saved the record. So checking for dirty can return False, yet you edited a record you may not have wanted to edit. Sometimes, the only way around this is to use unbound forms or what I call staging tables. In the latter case these tables may be exact dupes of the primary table except they cannot have an autonumber field (or at least that would be useless). You would have the PK values from the primary table as foreign key values though, so that you can relate the changes made back to the primary table. In the end, if the user decides to not save changes, the staging table data is flushed and the form closed.

[Minty]

You can use any forms Before Update event to capture and back out of edits.
This includes sub forms, but be aware that changes to the main form are saved as soon as you move to the sub form, so you would need to capture both forms updates.

I would have a read here
https://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/threads/bad-data-is-bad-for-business-1-and-2.324342/

About how to validate and save or not save data in forms, it will save you a lot hard work further down the line.

[ScubaBart]

Ok folks, after messing with this and things getting complicated, I figured out a much easier solution in this particular instance.

I put the tables into a query and based the form on that and got rid of the sub-tables so I can easily cancel out of the form and undo if any part of the form is dirty.

Underwhelming I know but it works for this application at least.