Hi Dianna,
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Use this information and these scripts at your own risk. As a condition of
using these scripts and information from this site, you agree to hold
harmless both the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and
Bruce Knox for any problems that they may cause or other situations that
may arise from their use, and that neither the Extension Service nor I will
be held liable for those consequences. The scripts and information are
provided "as is" without warranty, implied or otherwise. Limitation of
liability will be the amount paid to the University of Arkansas
specifically for this information.
The MS Access 2000 Install apparently sets the Longs Registry setting to
false and then gives the erroneous error message when accessing Oracle LONG
datatype fields.
This Longs Registry setting is a Workaround for potential problems with the
Oracle LONG datatype which has been changed considerably since Oracle7.
This error occurs with both Oracle7 and Oracle8 and can make previously
working Queries fail.
There is a "Longs" setting in the ODBC setup for each of your ODBC Data
Sources using the Oracle ODBC Driver. Set this to “T” to Force Retrieval
of Longs. That is, Force Retrieval of Oracle LONG datatype fields.
This ends up in a Registry entry something like:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\server_prod]
"Longs"="T"
"DSN"="server_prod"
There are lots of other items in that section of the Registry and unless
you have experience modifying the registry I would suggest you change the
setting via the Control Panel if you are using Oracle8.
For Oracle7, you can change the Registry or replace the DSN using Microsoft
ODBC for Oracle Driver.
Changing your settings may be an IT support staff issue.
If you are unaware, the Registry is a key windows file and can be corrupted
to the point that your machine will not function. Even small changes, such
as Longs=F, can make applications fail and can prove to be very difficult
to debug.
You can back up your registry, but the backup file can be very large.
To change the setting for Oracle8 via the Control Panel:
Start>Settings>Control Panel>
[Administrative Tools>Data Sources (ODBC) for Windows 2000 OR
ODBC Data Sources (32bit) for Windows 95/98 ]
ODBC Data Source Manager>System DSN>
for each Data Source Name for Driver "Oracle ODBC Driver", e.g.,
server_prod,
Select Button Configure...
On the Oracle 8 ODBC Driver Configuration window, select Tab Workarounds.
Check Box for Force Retrieval of Longs. Ok. Ok.
(ditto for all Data Sources using the Oracle ODBC Driver)
That changes the registry setting "Longs" without running regedit:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\server_prod]
"Longs"="T"
"DSN"="server_prod"
Disclaimer
Use this information and these scripts at your own risk. As a condition of
using these scripts and information from this site, you agree to hold
harmless both the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and
Bruce Knox for any problems that they may cause or other situations that
may arise from their use, and that neither the Extension Service nor I will
be held liable for those consequences. The scripts and information are
provided "as is" without warranty, implied or otherwise. Limitation of
liability will be the amount paid to the University of Arkansas
specifically for this information.
Thank You...
Raghu...
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
