Setting for fieldsize property of one or more fields has been changed to a shorter size error

[Repent34]

I have a table with fields and values already established. I decided to add
a lookup to one of the fields. I created a table with the lookup values. I
then went to the first table and changed the field name by adding "ID" to
the field name and then selecting lookup in the data type, went to the table
with the lookup values, went through the wizard, and when I went to save the
table got the error mentioned above and that several hundred items would be
removed from the table. I know that these are the values that the lookup is
supposed to represent. I know that I can just go ahead and then go to the
table and using the newely created drop down list, provided ny the lookup,
and select the value that had been there.

How can I do this so that I don't have to reinput the stripped data? The
error mentioned something about field size being smaller but the long
interger is set at 255 characters.

 

[John W. Vinson]

How can I do this so that I don't have to reinput the stripped data? The
error mentioned something about field size being smaller but the long
interger is set at 255 characters.

STOP.

Before you use the misdesigned, misleading, infuriating lookup wizard AT ALL
read http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm.

Your long integer field has ZERO alphabetic characters. It's *a number* in the
range -2 billion odd to + two billion odd. It is not text, and CANNOT contain
text. It's a pointer to a different table which contains your text.

I'm not sure how the lookup wizard works when you convert an existing field...
but I sure hope you have a backup.

 

[Repent]

good info but the article talks about how bad lookups are without providing
another solution.

chris

 

[John W. Vinson]

good info but the article talks about how bad lookups are without providing
another solution.

Sorry... should have amplified that.

All a Lookup is is... another table.

You can create that other table yourself, without the wizard. All the Lookup
does is puts a combo box in your Table. You don't really need a combo box in
the table; you should never be opening table datasheets *at all* - they're not
designed for data presentation or interaction, but for data storage. You can
use a Form to enter and edit data in your table, and you can easily put a
combo box on that form. If you still have the table with the text in it, or
the lookup table that the wizard created from it, you can easily base the
combo box on that table - or (if you have a backup from before the wizard) you
can create one using a make-table query.