Memo field truncating - Access 2002

[Michele]

After importing an excel file into an Access table, it
cut off the words after 255 characters even though the
fields were classifield as "memo" fields, supposedly able
to contain up to thousands of characters? Is there a way
to capture all info in the memo field for reporting
purposes? Thanks...Michele

 

[Joe Fallon]

This is a known issue for Office97.
Since you are getting in 2002, you have a different problem.

It DOES work.

Your problem is that Excel is not a database and so Access has to "guess"
the datatype of each column.
In the wizard, note you cannot modify this guess. (Never understood why
not!)

Therefore, you need to know how the guess is made.
Access looks at the first 16 rows of data (in .Net it is 8) and evaluates
it.
Then it chooses a datatype. In your case, the first 16 rows all have text
less than 255 characters!
So Access guesses Text255, not memo.

Move a row of data to row 2 (under the column names it is the first row of
data).
Be sure this row contains more than 255 characters in that field.
Now import the data.
It will work!

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
This is a known issue for Office97.
Since you are getting in 2002, you have a different problem.

It DOES work.

Your problem is that Excel is not a database and so Access has to "guess"
the datatype of each column.
In the wizard, note you cannot modify this guess. (Never understood why
not!)

Therefore, you need to know how the guess is made.
Access looks at the first 16 rows of data (in .Net it is 8) and evaluates
it.
Then it chooses a datatype. In your case, the first 16 rows all have text
less than 255 characters!
So Access guesses Text255, not memo.

Move a row of data to row 2 (under the column names it is the first row of
data).
Be sure this row contains more than 255 characters in that field.
Now import the data.
It will work!
--
Joe Fallon
Access MVP






.