BUG: Oracle Driver Errors on Delimited Column Names

 Last reviewed: September 9, 1996
Article ID: Q104958
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Open Database Connectivity, version 1.0

BUG# ODBCORA: 572 (1.002816)

SYMPTOMS

The Oracle ODBC Driver gives an error on any SELECT statement that contains an outer join (in the ODBC escape-clause syntax) on a delimited column name that is greater than 17 characters. As a result, when using Microsoft Access or Microsoft Visual Basic to connect to an Oracle server, you cannot perform outer joins on columns whose names are longer than 17 characters.

So, the following query: 

   SELECT * FROM {oj table1 LEFT OUTER JOIN table2 ON
   (table1.abcdefghijklmnopq = table2.col1)}
works fine; note that the delimited column name (abcdefghijklmnopq) is 17 chars long. However, the following query: 

   SELECT * FROM {oj table1 LEFT OUTER JOIN table2 ON
   (table1.abcdefghijklmnopqr = table2.col1)}
gives the error: 

   MsgId: Unknown String Resource.
The above error appears in a dialog box with an OK button. Choosing OK will cause SQLExecDirect or SQLExecute to return SQL_ERROR. The SQL_ERROR states: 

   szSqlState = "37000"
   [PageAhead][ODBC Oracle Driver]Syntax Error
While working with an ODBC Data source, the Access Engine uses delimited identifiers for all its queries; it also uses canonical outer join syntax for performing outer joins. Thus, when an Access or Visual Basic user does an outer join on Oracle tables, the above mentioned error occurs if any of the columns participating in the outer join have a name longer than 17 characters.

WORKAROUND

Rename the column so that it has less than 17 characters.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in ODBC Oracle Driver versions 1.00.2816 and 1.00.3112. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

KBCategory: kbusage kberrmsg
KBSubcategory:

Additional reference words: 1.00.2816 1.00.3112 VB



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Last reviewed: September 9, 1996
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