ADO - Absolute Position

1. Purpose

AbsolutePosition tells you which record (by number) the record pointer is currently on — for example, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

2. Syntax

rs.AbsolutePosition

or to move to a specific record:

rs.AbsolutePosition = 5

3. Description

  • The first record in the Recordset has a position of 1.

  • If the current position is before the first record, AbsolutePosition returns adPosBOF.

  • If the position is after the last record, it returns adPosEOF.

  • You can use it to identify or return to a particular record.

4. Example

rs.Open "SELECT * FROM Employees", conn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

rs.MoveFirst
MsgBox "Current record position: " & rs.AbsolutePosition   ' Shows 1

rs.MoveNext
MsgBox "Current record position: " & rs.AbsolutePosition   ' Shows 2

' Move directly to 5th record
rs.AbsolutePosition = 5
MsgBox "Now on record: " & rs("EmployeeName")

5. Important Notes

  • AbsolutePosition starts from 1, not 0.

  • It is available only for Recordsets that support bookmarks (e.g., adOpenStatic, adOpenKeyset, or adOpenDynamic).

  • It does not work with adOpenForwardOnly cursor type.

  • Useful when:

    • You want to display record numbers (e.g., “Record 3 of 10”).

    • You need to return to a specific record later.

6. Related Property

  • RecordCount → tells you how many records are in the Recordset.

  • Together, you can use:

    MsgBox "Record " & rs.AbsolutePosition & " of " & rs.RecordCount