Defining Fields on a Table

[BBaggie]

I have just imported a 700+line, 31 field spreadsheet
from Excel into an Access Table.

As I am defining my columns, it has taken several trys to
determine which type of definition works best. I am now
getting an error message "Too many fields defined". When
looking at the "Help" it indicates that I have exceeded
the 255 field limit in Access.

Is there a way to get around this limit?

 

[Bob Barnes]

If you have 31 fields, why not save the Excel file as a
DBF file, & import it into Access. Be sure to list Field
Names in the 1st Row, & of course, make them Unique.
Good to have no spaces in the FieldName.

Sometimes using a text DataType is best if you'll have
data like "456" & "ABC". When importing, Access will
examine the first few Rows of Excel data. . .it could
call the "Combo 456 & ABC" a Number DataType if the first
50 - 100 Records are truly interpreted as Numbers. Then
when "ABC" arrives = problems, unless you code Trap that.

HTH - Bob

 

[TC]

Is there a way to get around this limit?

If you could get around it, it wouldn't be a limit, would it!

Designing tables in a database product like Access, is quite different to
designing Excel spreadsheets. There is a seldom a simple "one to one
correspondence" betrween tables & spreadsheets. If you want to know more,
try the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q100139.ASP

HTH,
TC

 

[John Vinson]

I have just imported a 700+line, 31 field spreadsheet
from Excel into an Access Table.

As I am defining my columns, it has taken several trys to
determine which type of definition works best. I am now
getting an error message "Too many fields defined". When
looking at the "Help" it indicates that I have exceeded
the 255 field limit in Access.

Is there a way to get around this limit?

Compact the database. It'll recover the lost field "slots" that get
used up every time you change a datatype.

As suggested elsethread, you may want to create an empty Table with
the proper datatypes, and use File... Import to import into this table
rather than trusting Access' peculiar and unreliable guesses as to the
proper datatype.