the field is too small to accept the amount of data you attempted to add

[sneuberg]

If you found out what is causing your problem would you share the specifics with us for future reference? What was the code or query that resulted in this error?

 

[ryetee]

If you found out what is causing your problem would you share the specifics with us for future reference? What was the code or query that resulted in this error?

I had a query that basically generated the data for the report.
It also referenced a field that wasn't used in the report. We'll call it fieldx from table1. It is defined as a text field of 50 characters. The query has table1.fieldx as one of its fields.
In the vba there is a string strUser and the system Date is referenced as well.

After the open report there is a line as follows ( this is from memory as I don't have the code in front of me so may not be 100% syntactically correct)

Table1.fieldx = table1.fieldx & "/" & date & strUser

The field itself had 48 characters in and was trying to add a further12 hence the error

 

[sneuberg]

Thanks for the feedback. Then it was probably being added via a recordset as MarkK demonstrated in post #12 that that method causes this error to appear. So in the end it appears that this was just a coincidence that this happened when you were modifying the report. A case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

I'd fix this if were you. I understand the idea of keep a log of when the report is run but rather than concatenate the date and user info in the same field each time it would be better just to have a table for these log entries and add a new record each time. If you ever want to query this data it will be a lot easier if it is stored that way.

 

[ryetee]

Thanks for the feedback. Then it was probably being added via a recordset as MarkK demonstrated in post #12 that that method causes this error to appear. So in the end it appears that this was just a coincidence that this happened when you were modifying the report. A case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

I'd fix this if were you. I understand the idea of keep a log of when the report is run but rather than concatenate the date and user info in the same field each time it would be better just to have a table for these log entries and add a new record each time. If you ever want to query this data it will be a lot easier if it is stored that way.

Flip!! I glossed over MarkK's answer as I thought he was telling you how to make your example fail! Cost me a few hours by not paying attention!

Thanks to all for your help!

 

[gemma-the-husky]

it's easy to fix your app if it is either in vba, or a query, or, but if it does this in a macro, then I am not sure how to fix it offhand

in vba, you would be updating a recordset so instead of

rst!myfield = "something" & "something else"

then simply

rst!myfield = left("something" & "something else",50) would stop it erroring.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Now that the techie side of the problem is solved, there is still a philosophical question. If this is, as previously described, a type of audit trail, it might be better to count that update as a separate event (worthy of a new audit record for a new "touch") rather than trying to concatenate messages in what is a rather short message field.