Since Access has strong datatyping (every field must have a defined
datatype) while Excel does not (each cell is independent, a column may
contain any combination of datatypes), Access must *guess* the
appropriate datatypes when importing or linking to a spreadsheet. It
does so by looking at the first few (I don't know the numeric value of
"few" here <g>) rows. If they are all numeric, Access treats that
column as if it were of Number type.
If further down the sheet you have non-numeric data you'll get this
error. A common example is Zip or PostCodes - if you have five-digit
numbers in the first several rows, and further down something like
83660-6354 or N3Y 8B1, you'll get an error.
One getaround is to put a dummy row at the top of the spreadsheet with
an unambiguous text value ('X for example) in each such column.
John W. Vinson[MVP]
I have had better results if I imported the excel spreadsheet into
access instead of linking it.
There can still be problems but fewer. If problems still come up then
the I have used the approach that John has suggested. Once imported
then just run a quick query to delete that particular row.
Ron
