False "Invalid Argument" error message

[Sally]

I have Office XP Pro. In a stable, working database,
today for the first time I have been blocked by
an "invalid argument" error message in the following
cases:
1) an append query using data from a linked table
2) trying to reimport the linked table
3) editing the relationships mgmt window

I checked the documentation for this message. It is
supposed to occur in 2 cases. 1)regional settings that do
not use a decimal for currency, and 2) using an invalid
value in the property sheet that does not match the data
type. I have checked both these matters and they do not
exist for me.

Furthermore this database, the linked tables, and the
queries have been working for over a year. Do I sound
frustrated? I am.

 

[Sally]

I'm back to normalcy. I'm not sure which of the following
four steps made the difference:
1) freeing more space on the C Drive where my database
was located
2) shutting down the computer
3) repair and compact database (the false error messages
had increased the size of the database almost 100 fold)
4) for the linked table, changed the Field Size for the
only Number type data field from "Integer" to "Long
Integer"

 

[Guest]

It turns out that the linked table had a text field such
that the values started with 7 spaces followed by a
numeric character. In the past, the values did not
include these spaces.

The problems I encountered indicate that Access has
problems negotiating its data types, when leading spaces
are involved.