too many defined fields (Access)

[Guest]

I have never run into this problem before. I am getting the message "too
many defined fields." I have done databases with many more fields before. I
do I get past this?

 

[Alex White MCDBA MCSE]

The max limit on fields is 255 per table, in most versions, but that error
normally comes up when building a form or report and you have selected all
the fields, the other reason this could be happening is using a query for a
form/report with a join in it.

How many fields does the resultset have in it?

 

[DL]

I guess the obvious Q would be how many fields?
and your version?

 

[Douglas J Steele]

As the others have pointed out, the limit is 255 fields. If you have fewer
than that and are getting the message, try compacting the database: if
you're adding and deleting fields, the field count won't be properly reset
until you compact.

Note that you'll also get the same error message if the total row size is
larger than the 2000 byte limit. However, when calculating the row size,
note that it's based on how many characters are actually used. You can have
20 fields each defined as text 255 and Access won't complain unless the
total number of characters stored in the 20 fields exceeds 2000 bytes.