Getting Rid of "Ghost Field" on Access Report

[Jorge Ramos]

Hello All,



I'm hoping you can help me with a puzzling behavior exhibited by an Access
report. When I attempt to run it I receive an error message asking for a
value to a field that is not on the report or the underlying query.



I have a report, which I will refer to as MyReport#1. It runs off of a
MyQuery#1 without any error messages. I used MyReport#1 as the basis for a
second repot, which I will call My Report#2. Everything, in MyReport#2 is
identical as MyReport#1 except for one field. MyReport#2 runs off of a
different query which I will call MyQuery#2. If I run MyQuery#2 by itself,
it runs fine and does not produce any error messages. However, when I
attempt to run MyReport#2 I receive an error message asking for a value to
the original field available on MyReport#1, but substituted for another in
MyReport#2. I have unsuccessfully checked all the report fields searching
for an instance of the old field name. I've also searched the Sorting and
Grouping box but can not find a reference to the offending field. It is
almost like the report is asking for a value for the "ghost" field once
available on MyReport#1 but not present in MyReport#2.



Can you offer a suggestion as to what might be happening and how to fix it?



BTW, I'm using Access 2003, SP3 running on Win XP



Thanks!

 

[Allen Browne]

Suggestions:

1. Look in the report's Filter and OrderBy properties.

2. Uncheck the boxes under:
Tools | Options | General | Name AutoCorrect
Explanation of why:
http://allenbrowne.com/bug-03.html

3. Compact the database:
Tools | Database Utilities | Compact/Repair

If you are still stuck, here's a utility that may help:
Where is a field used?
at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-73.html

 

[Jorge Ramos]

Alle,

Thanks for your prompt reply! I tried your suggestions, and the ghost field
is still a problem. I also ran your FindField utility and it could not find
the field on the report.

I can't think of anything else but to recreate the report from scratch. I'm
looking to avoid that because the report is fairly involved!

Thanks again,

Jorge

 

[Rick Brandt]

Alle,

Thanks for your prompt reply! I tried your suggestions, and the ghost
field is still a problem. I also ran your FindField utility and it
could not find the field on the report.

I can't think of anything else but to recreate the report from
scratch. I'm looking to avoid that because the report is fairly
involved!

This is really fairly simple. You just use the process of elimination.

Copy your report to a new report you can work on. In design view of the copy
first delete All code. See if ghost is gone.

If not, then start deleting large blocks of controls (like whole report
sections) trying the report after each deletion. Eventually you will delete
something that eliminates the problem. Undo the last deletion and then refine
the search from there.