Field name length restricted to 8 characters?

[Pat]

I've heard that Access 2003 cannot distinguish between field names that have
the same first 8 characters, and that I should therefore ensure that no two
field names start with the same 8 characters. Is this correct?

Thanks

 

[Wayne-I-M]

Hi Pat

Thats wrong

I have loads of field names starting
txtAdWork
txtAdStill
txtAdGo
etc
etc

So txtAd works fine

 

[Wayne-I-M]

Hi Pat

I have just created a table with fields called

a1
a2
a3
a4
a5

I also formated them in a number of formats

a1 = Autonumber
a2 = Time/Date
a3 = Text
a4 = Number
a5 = Yes/No

There was no problems includeing this new table into an existing query and
form.

So I would say that as long as the field name is not already used then
subject to normal conventions you should have no problems.

This said there are many people on this site with much more expirence than
me of using access so if there are any known problems I'm sure that someone
will just the thread. But, for me I think you'll be OK.

Good luck with your project

 

[Wayne-I-M]

Hi Pat just tried a new table with fields called
aaaaaaaaaa1
aaaaaaaaaa2
aaaaaaaaaa3
aaaaaaaaaa4
aaaaaaaaaa5

and there were no problems

 

[KARL DEWEY]

Have you tried it? Why have you not rried to do it?

 

[John Vinson]

I've heard that Access 2003 cannot distinguish between field names that have
the same first 8 characters, and that I should therefore ensure that no two
field names start with the same 8 characters. Is this correct?

Thanks

From Access Help for Specifications:

Number of characters in a table name 64
Number of characters in a field name 64

That assertion might have been true for Access 1.1 many years ago but it is
certainly not true for 2003.