title: Get VBA to Evaluate Formula In String
body: <p>I have a table that stores a string representing a formula that I would like to have either Access or VBA evaluate. A few example strings look like:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>table.FirstName &amp; ' ' &amp; table.LastName</li>
  <li>table.LastName &amp; ', ' &amp; table.FirstName</li>
  <li>table.LastName &amp; ', ' &amp; table.FirstName &amp; ' ' &amp; LEFT(table.Middle,1)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Basically, I'm trying to change how different names can be viewed based on entity type, missing information, etc.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any way to force either Access (in a query) or VBA (as part of a custom function) to return what the string is telling it as opposed to the literal value? From the examples above, I would expect:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>table.FirstName table.LastName</li>
  <li>table.LastName, table.FirstName</li>
  <li>table.LastName, table.Firstname, t</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Replace by itself won't work, as some of the formatting includes LEFT(table.Name,1) or other functions. I'm just hoping there is a simple way to force the string to be evaluated, rather than having to come up with a complex function.</p>
  
  <p>I apologize if I haven't explained this well, I feel like my attempt to merge the database aspect with the string formatting aspect may not come across clearly. If you have questions please reply and I'll do my best to explain it better.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you in advance.</p>