I have a software package that uses a DBF file. I am linking to that file in Access 2002. Most of the fields are fine- however- at some point some of the field sizes are cut short. A text field that should have a size of 255 comes in as being a size of 44. This causes weird results in my data- shifting the data that's cut off into other fields and whatnot.

I have tried importing instead of linking- but get the same results. Same w/ copy/paste. The software package runs fine- and doesn't display these odd results. Obviously I can't go in and modify the software package (and I'm not sure that's where the problem is to begin with).

If I EXPORT out of the software package- I have to create an HTML file (I know- LAME!), then import it on into Excel- where, I can put in a dummy record row so that Access declares the right type of field to use for the tables upon importing (PAIN IN THE @$$!)- but- it doesn't cut the fields off. So, I know the problem is in Access linking to this DBF file, and not the DBF file itself.

Does anyone have any solutions here?
Thanks

Could it be data related such that you could use Replace() to eliminate/replace the offending character?

Actually-
Just figured it out. It's 2 problems at once. For some reason, it doesn't like the software's main DBF file. So, I export the records into a new DBF file. The software forces an ALLCAPS.DBF naming convention- which, the Jet Engine doesn't like. So, I rename the file and either link or import it into Access- everything's fine. So, I'm going to look for the update to the JET engine to see if it's fixed the naming conventions problem...

Thanks for posting back.