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Q180193: FIX: DAO Oracle and the NUMBER Datatype

Article: Q180193
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): 2.1,5.0,6.0,Build 2.573.4202
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbDAOsearch kbDriver kbOracle kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVBDB kbGrpDSMDAC kbDSuppor
Last Modified: 11-SEP-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft ODBC for Oracle version 2.5 Build 2.573.4202 
- Microsoft Data Access Components version 2.1 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When using DAO/Jet to access an Oracle database, you get either blank rows back
in a grid or rows filled with #DEFINE (when using Access).

CAUSE
=====

This behavior is caused by DAO having a problem determining the datatype for
Oracle columns defined as NUMBER.

RESOLUTION
==========

This behavior is only exhibited when the Oracle columns have been defined as
NUMBER. If you define the columns as NUMBER(38,0), which is the equivalent of
just NUMBER, everything works as expected. When you use DAO/Jet to access an
Oracle database, you need to specify the size (total digits) and precision for
table columns of type NUMBER.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the versions of Microsoft
FrontPage listed at the beginning of this article.

This bug was corrected in MDAC 2.1 Service Pack 2.

You can obtain the latest version of MDAC from the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://www.microsoft.com/data/download.htm

MORE INFORMATION
================

This problem was identified using Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise edition, MDAC 1.5
(see the REFERENCES section below), and Oracle 7.3. You may see different
behavior with different versions of these components. Following is an example of
what will work and what will fail when creating an Oracle table that will be
accessed by DAO/Jet.

This Oracle table definition will fail:

        CREATE TABLE daotest (item_number NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
                              depot_number NUMBER);

This Oracle table definition will work:

        CREATE TABLE daotest (item_number NUMBER(38,0) PRIMARY KEY,
                              depot_number NUMBER(38,0));

If you are using Access, the first example will fill your grid with #DELETE. If
you are using Visual Basic/DAO, your grid will show the correct number of rows
but they won't contain any data. You can still insert records but you never get
the correct display.

REFERENCES
==========

ORACLE: The Complete Reference by George Koch and Kevin Loney

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q175018 : HOWTO: Acquire and Install the Microsoft Oracle ODBC Driver

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1998, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Sam
Carpenter, Microsoft Corporation.


Additional query words: Jet Oracle grid #Define

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbDAOsearch kbDriver kbOracle kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVBDB kbGrpDSMDAC kbDSupport kbMDAC210SP2fix kbMDACNoSweep 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbODBCSearch kbVB500 kbVB600 kbMDACSearch kbMDAC210 kbODBCOracle25734202 kbODBCOracle250Search
Version           : :2.1,5.0,6.0,Build 2.573.4202
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

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