ACC: Concatenation of Memo Fields Creates Text Field

• Microsoft Access versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 7.0, 97

SYMPTOMS

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

When you use a make-table query to concatenate two Memo fields, the query concatenates the Memo fields into a Text field in the resulting table. If you have more than 255 characters combined in the two Memo fields, the data is truncated in the new Text field.

CAUSE

Text fields have a limit of 255 characters; Memo fields can contain up to 32,000 characters in Microsoft Access 1.x, and up to 64,000 characters in Microsoft Access 2.0 or later.

RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, use an append query on an existing table with a Memo field and concatenate the two Memo fields into the existing Memo field. For example:

1. Create a table with two Memo fields:

         Table: OldTable
         ------------------
         Field Name: Memo1
            Data Type: Memo
         Field Name: Memo2
            Data Type: Memo
   
   

2. Create a table with one Memo field:

         Table: ExistingTable
         -------------------------
         Field Name: ExistingField
            Data Type: Memo
   
   

3. Create the following new query based on the OldTable table:

         Query: TestMemo
         ------------------------------
         Type: Select Query
   

         Field: Concat: [Memo1]&[Memo2]
            Table: OldTable
   
   

4. On the Query menu, click Append Query (or Append in Microsoft Access 7.0 or earlier). Type ExistingTable in the Table Name box.

5. In the Append To row of the QBE grid, select ExistingField.

6. Run the query.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps To Reproduce Behavior