"The field is too small to accept the amound ot data you attempted to add. Try inserting or pasting

[Guest]

I get the above mysterious message when I try to run a simple select
query.

All it does is select from two existing queries, linking by ID number,
so that I can see how many IDs appear in both queries.

The message seems to be totally irrelevant and I am mystified

a) by why my simple query won't run

b) by what on Earth this error message has to do with a select query

Any ideas?

 

[John Vinson]

I get the above mysterious message when I try to run a simple select
query.

All it does is select from two existing queries, linking by ID number,
so that I can see how many IDs appear in both queries.

The message seems to be totally irrelevant and I am mystified

a) by why my simple query won't run

b) by what on Earth this error message has to do with a select query

Any ideas?

Possibly you have a Lookup field causing its typical problems: is
either of the ID fields a Lookup field in table design? If so, it's
probably trying to join on the looked-up value rather than the actual
table contents.

If that's not it, you might have some database corruption. Delete the
query; use Tools... Database Utilites... Compact; recreate the query
and see if it works.

if that's not it, please post the SQL of the query and some
information about the relevant table fields.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[Guest]

Possibly you have a Lookup field causing its typical problems: is
either of the ID fields a Lookup field in table design? If so, it's
probably trying to join on the looked-up value rather than the actual
table contents.

If that's not it, you might have some database corruption. Delete the
query; use Tools... Database Utilites... Compact; recreate the query
and see if it works.

if that's not it, please post the SQL of the query and some
information about the relevant table fields.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

Thanks for the ideas. (I don't know why my name won't appear in this
group.)

I found something that I had done a bit wrong, in that one of the
queries was selecting nothing due to a typo. So I was trying to link
by a field that had no records in one of the queries.

As for why it gave that message, instead of "nothing to link on" ... I
guess it may be a badly defined case statement or something, where not
all the possibilities were covered, leaving it deciding something on
the lines of "else give that message about the size of field".

 

[John Vinson]

As for why it gave that message, instead of "nothing to link on" ... I
guess it may be a badly defined case statement or something, where not
all the possibilities were covered, leaving it deciding something on
the lines of "else give that message about the size of field".

There are indeed misleading error messages at times. I gather that at
some points the program "realizes" that there's something wrong, but
is incorrect at ascertaining WHAT went wrong.

I take it that when you corrected the query, it worked ok?

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[Guest]

There are indeed misleading error messages at times. I gather that at
some points the program "realizes" that there's something wrong, but
is incorrect at ascertaining WHAT went wrong.

I take it that when you corrected the query, it worked ok?

John W. Vinson[MVP]

I think it would have done, but by then I'd made tables out of each
query and linked them instead (which was how I found the problem).