Getting string from database table with VARCHAR(MAX) field

[D. Leger]

I'm working on a Excel 2003 VBA macro, trying and failing to retrieve a 5092
chars string from a SQL Server 2005 table with a Varchar(Max) field.

I can retrieve the string from a table with a Varchar(8000) field but not
from a Varchar(Max) field so there's something about such a field that Excel
doesn't like. But what? And is there a workaround?

I'm using an ADODB Recordset to get at the data and I can't reduce the
Varchar(Max) field to 8000 chars because some of the strings are over 34000
chars in length and I need to be able read those strings in my macro.

So, I guess the simple question is: how do I read a string from a
Varchar(Max) database field?

Thank you,

Dan