Field data type errors.

[giaruso]

Access 2002/2003. I have inherited an old Access 2000 database where one of the fields in the table had a Number data type with TEXT in it. I noticed the wrong data type and I change it to text. All appeared OK until I attached a combo box to this field. When clicking in or opening the combo box in any row in this table with the old text, I get an error message: "The value you entered isn't valid for this field. For example, you may have entered text in a numeric field or a number that is larger than the FieldSize setting permits." This field has about 3,000 records in it, and it appears to be corrupted and a permanent numeric field, I have tried everything to fix it: Compact and Repair; Import, append, and update this field into another table/field and I cannot get rid of the error message. How do I get that Number field finally and completely converted into a TEXT field? Anyone got any ideas? Thank-You!

 

[Pat Hartman]

If you have a table with a numeric field that contains text, you should send it to Microsoft. The table is corrupted. If compact and repair doesn't work, sometimes the Jet utility you can download from Microsoft will fix the problem. If not, you need to do it manually. You need to copy all the records EXCEPT the bad ones and then manually recreate the bad ones.