Sporadic errors with Access reports - Access 97

[Ragnar Midtskogen]

Hello,

I am not sure if this is the correct topic but I am seing errors with
reports that I can't explain.
This is at a client who is still using Office 97 and I keep having problems
where the app runs on my computers but not on theirs.
They finally upgraded from Windows NT4 to XP Pro and I am wondering if
Access 97 is fully compatible with Win XP.

The current problem is two reports where I have some code in the Detail
Format event proc that fills in some unbased address fields by using data
from some hidden fields based on address fields in the tables that is the
report's RecordSource.

On my computers the reports always work, on the client's computers they
sometimes give an error 2427, 'You entered an expression that has no value'
and the fields filled in by the code come out empty.

I thought it might be a data problem, but I tried using a copy of the
client's back-end on my computers running the report for the same invoice
and I can't reproduce the problem.

If anyone has seen something like this I would appreciate hearing about it.

Ragnar

 

[Allen Browne]

Any more info here, Ragnar?

There are just a couple of issues with Access 97 on WinXP. One involves
looping through the Controls of a Section of the report. A97 can report that
there aren't any controls in the section. Looping through the controls of
the report, and testing for the section of the control works around that
issue (if memory serves correctly.)

The "expression has no value" error can also occur with calculated controls
when the report has no data. Cancelling the report's NoData event should
avoid that.

 

[Ragnar Midtskogen]

Thank you Allen,

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't fighting some known issue.
I also hve run this app on Windows XP Pro here, without any problems. I try
to duplicate their environment as closely as I can, including running the
app over a LAN.
Since the problem is intermittent, it probably is not due to corruption, but
I created a new blank DB and copied all objects to it, just for good
measure.
Maybe I will have their system guy reinstall Access 97. I am also a little
bit concerned about the fact that they hardly ever compact neither their
client nor their back-end file. The client file should be about 3.5 MB, and
I have seen it as big as 130 MB. The back-end should be around 18 MB but I
have seen it at 40 MB. They also insist on everybody using the same copy of
the client, over a LAN (Windows network). I don't know if this could cause
this kind of problem.

Ragnar

 

[Ragnar Midtskogen]

Hello Allen,

Finally found the problem, and it was unexpected to say the least.
I was effectively using a local table to pass some parameters to the report,
since reports don't have the OpenArgs parameter of forms.
The table was joined by an inner join to the table in the RecordSource
query.
Under certain conditions, like when the user hit 'Enter' rather than
clicking on a button, the local table did not get any record inserted,
because a field would not accept a Null value.
The end result: the report had no data.

Moral is, don't rule out anything!

Ragnar