Entries in a field truncated to 49 or 50 characters

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve
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Steve

HELP !
I have a field set to TEXT and 255 characters in table design, but having
over the last few months entered 700 records, I see it now has its contents
truncated to 49 or 50 characters (inc spaces). This is no joke as I need to
type all the affected entries back in, but not knowing why it is doing this,
and I see it has just attacked one I did yesterday, there is no point in
continuing until I know why its doing it ! New records added are not
affected, and there are some older ones not affected, but the one I added
yesterday was into an older record, and today...chop ! One added a few
weeks ago is fine. Most frustrating !
Added text back in to an affected field. closed Access then opened it and
text ok.

All caps or caps/lowercase makes no difference
ANY IDEAS ?

Win98se
Access97

Created on this PC and not imported.

Steve :-(
 
How did you enter the records? Directly into the table? via a form? via an
append query?

Are you sure that the values are truncated, and not just that the width of
the field display isn't allowing you to see all the characters?
 
Ken,
Data entered via form.
Field display is wide enough. browsing through records sees the un-truncated
ones and truncated ones all show without changes to width, the fields
'window' is full screen width anyway.
Steve
 
Forgot to ask: is the field still showing that it's set to 255 characters as
data width?
 
I'm checking with some others who may have knowledge of this situation. Will
get back to you shortly.
 
Ken.
Yes,..the properties of the field in table view has it as text and 255
characters. Always been like that since the word 'go'.
Thanks for your help so far.
Steve
 
I've checked with others and no one has seen this before. Only idea that
"pops" up to us is that somehow the field was initially set to the default
50-character size, and then was reset to the current 255-character size
after data were being entered. However, in this situation, if you try to
continue typing data into the field once you've reached the maximum length,
ACCESS won't let you continue.

Did you type the data into the field? or load it via append or update query?
 
Ken,
As far as I remember, I made the field size 255 from the outset, as calling
it DESCRIPTION and knowing the likely usage would have seen me do this as a
matter of logic. However, are you saying that, if someone forgets to do so,
then starts entering records and data in this field, realises it should be
bigger than 50, adjusts the properties to 255, that ACCESS will still stop
it at 50 ? I have in other databases realised that a limit was insufficient
and increased it, but not found ACCESS still sticking to my first chosen
limit. Do I understand you correctly ? I am sure we have all done this !

The data was typed into the field via form view.

Entries made this last few days dont get truncated, just those from a
certain period of data entry so it appears.

Very disconcerting/unsettling not knowing why as it may happen again without
the cause known !...and to anybody !

Steve
 
What I am saying is that someone may have been entering data while the field
format was set to 50 characters max. Changing to 255 later will not make the
earlier entered values become longer; they'll be stuck at the original 50,
but you can add more characters to them after you change the field to 255.

My peers and I agree that the most likely cause of what you're seeing is
that the field initially was at 50 and then was reset to 255. If the data
were entered via append query or importing, the strings would have been
truncated at that point.

Sorry that I don't have a different suggestion for what might happen, but so
long as you stay at the 255-character limit for now, you should be ok in the
future.
 
Ken,
I think it may be gremlins ! I had reports created which featured the
fields manufacturer, title, quality. I have printouts from them
showing this. Yet for the weekend and their annual primary purpose in
life, I print them out without checking them all due to time and at
the show, see that they show manufacturer, description, quality.
Proving totally useless as description is not always filled in and is
not sufficient to indicate the actual item concerned. I was left with
trying to remember my stock after all the hard work, (it worked last
year ok with printouts to prove it !) So something swopped
description for title, note also it was the description field that was
truncated. Both fields are set at 255 text.
I noticed it on another report or two and amended data source
'description' back to 'title' but failed to see all had gone that way,
yes.... not just one report !
Whats going on I ask !
But I know I created the description field at 255, and I am the only
user. I shall try and replicate this somehow.

Steve
 
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