Access 2007 databases querying linked oracle 10g tables are returning flawed result sets when using the WHERE clause to filter-out unwanted records. Oddly, some filtering is happening, but not reliably.
I can reliably demonstrate/produce the problem like this:
Create a *new* database with Access 2007.
Create a second *new* database with Access 2007, and then "save-as" 2000.
Create a third *new* database with an older version of Access.
Run the following query in each database:
SELECT
STATUS,
ID,
LAST_NAME,
FIRST_NAME
FROM
Oracle10g_table
WHERE
STATUS="A"
In both databases created with Access 2007, running this query will give you a result set in which some of the records where (STATUS="A") = false have been filtered out, but not all of them.
In databases created with older versions of access, the where clause filters properly, and the result set is correct.
STATUS is a text field
The table is a "linked" table to an Oracle10g Database
The table has 68k rows
I've tested my timeout at 60, 1000 and 0
Has anyone run into this problem?
I wonder if this is a new "feature" of access that will also affect 2010. Could this have anything to do with ODBC?
Thanks for any help,
- dave
MORE...
I just tried an alternate form of the query, using HAVING instead of WHERE, and it worked! Problem is, besides that this shouldn't change anything (yes -- more virtual tables, but shouldn't change the end result) my end-users will be using the Access 2007 visual query designer, not typing SQL directly, which is going to default any criteria they enter into a WHERE.
My hunch is that one of your ODBC drivers used by Access to connect to Oracle is treating "A" as a column name not the literal 'A'. Have you tried single quotes on the 'A'? In Oracle double quotes are used to reference column names, is there a column named "A" by any chance?
Oracle Query Example #1
Select object_name from all_objects
where "OBJECT_NAME" = 'DUAL'
Oracle Query Example #2
with example as (
Select object_name as "Fancy Column Name" from all_objects
)
select * from example
where "Fancy Column Name" = 'DUAL'
I've had a similar problem. In my case, changing the ODBC driver worked, but I could also just change the 'unique record identifier' to a column with no nulls in it. It still doesn't have to be the "right" unique record identifier.
This turned-out to be an ODBC-related issue. Our tech support service unit installs connectivity on each of our workstations -- they program it themselves, and who knows what they actually put into it -- but the net result is that when you link to an ODBC datasource with Access (of any version), our network servers show-up in the 'machine data source' tab, so we just click on the one we want and away we go. This has worked well until Access 2007.
What I did was create a "new" machine data source, which let me choose the ODBC driver myself (instead of making me use the one our tech support folks created). I picked "Microsoft ODBC for Oracle", entered the name of the server I wanted, and that all it took. Now the WHERE-clause inconsistent filtering problem is solved (I hope).
The only thing remaining is to send this back to our tech support folks, so they can clean-up their installation. Should I ask for hazard pay? :-) hehe
Related
I'm a finance person (little programming background) so I maybe asking something obvious for database programming experts but will appreciate any advice
Background:
I'm accessing Oracle NetSuite database via ODBC from Microsoft SQL Management Studio
Connection as a Linked Server is established successfully
I'm trying to execute the following SQL statements:
select * from [NETSUITE_SB2].[SB-B].[Administrator].[VARIANCE] -- success
select * from [NETSUITE_SB2].[SB-B].[Administrator].[WTAX_JOB] -- "Msg 7314, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The OLE DB provider "MSDASQL" for linked server "NETSUITE_SB2" does not contain the table ""SB-B"."Administrator"."WTAX_JOB"". The table either does not exist or the current user does not have permissions on that table."
Upon some testing, it appears that whether the query is successfully run depends on whether the table name contains "_" (underscore) - for all tables without underscore I've tried, it worked, for all tables with underscore that I've tried, it failed.
Can anyone help me figure out how to overcome this?
Thanks in advance!
Instead of using a 4-part name in SQL Server and having SQL Server generate a query for the linked server, try using the OPENQUERY function and passing a query in the target system's SQL dialect directly. Something like:
select *
from OPENQUERY([NETSUITE_SB2], 'select * from [SB-B].[Administrator].[WTAX_JOB]' )
I just encountered this myself in a new instance that I just set up. I had been using Suite Connect for 4+ years without running into this issue before.
I believe the issue with the situation here is the "[SB-B]" part of the name because it contains the "-" dash. I found that a "," comma or "." period were the issue with my name [Acme, Inc.]. Ether the period or comma threw the error.
The second part of the 4-part name is the NetSuite [Company Name] under General Settings Company Info. I changed the name in NetSuite and removed the comma and period and the problem went away. Maybe most special characters cause the issue?
Just remember you'll have to update your second part name in each query you created before.
While using OPENQUERY is a solution, I just don't like the extra quotes needed so I prefer normal SQL.
On some Microsoft Access queries, I get the following message: Operation must use an updatable query. (Error 3073). I work around it by using temporary tables, but I'm wondering if there's a better way. All the tables involved have a primary key. Here's the code:
UPDATE CLOG SET CLOG.NEXTDUE = (
SELECT H1.paidthru
FROM CTRHIST as H1
WHERE H1.ACCT = clog.ACCT AND
H1.SEQNO = (
SELECT MAX(SEQNO)
FROM CTRHIST
WHERE CTRHIST.ACCT = Clog.ACCT AND
CTRHIST.AMTPAID > 0 AND
CTRHIST.DATEPAID < CLOG.UPDATED_ON
)
)
WHERE CLOG.NEXTDUE IS NULL;
Since Jet 4, all queries that have a join to a SQL statement that summarizes data will be non-updatable. You aren't using a JOIN, but the WHERE clause is exactly equivalent to a join, and thus, the Jet query optimizer treats it the same way it treats a join.
I'm afraid you're out of luck without a temp table, though maybe somebody with greater Jet SQL knowledge than I can come up with a workaround.
BTW, it might have been updatable in Jet 3.5 (Access 97), as a whole lot of queries were updatable then that became non-updatable when upgraded to Jet 4.
--
I had a similar problem where the following queries wouldn't work;
update tbl_Lot_Valuation_Details as LVD
set LVD.LGAName = (select LGA.LGA_NAME from tbl_Prop_LGA as LGA where LGA.LGA_CODE = LVD.LGCode)
where LVD.LGAName is null;
update tbl_LOT_VALUATION_DETAILS inner join tbl_prop_LGA on tbl_LOT_VALUATION_DETAILS.LGCode = tbl_prop_LGA.LGA_CODE
set tbl_LOT_VALUATION_DETAILS.LGAName = [tbl_Prop_LGA].[LGA_NAME]
where tbl_LOT_VALUATION_DETAILS.LGAName is null;
However using DLookup resolved the problem;
update tbl_Lot_Valuation_Details as LVD
set LVD.LGAName = dlookup("LGA_NAME", "tbl_Prop_LGA", "LGA_CODE="+LVD.LGCode)
where LVD.LGAName is null;
This solution was originally proposed at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/537161/sql-update-woes-in-ms-access-operation-must-use-an-updateable-query
The problem defintely relates to the use of (in this case) the max() function. Any aggregation function used during a join (e.g. to retrieve the max or min or avg value from a joined table) will cause the error. And the same applies to using subqueries instead of joins (as in the original code).
This is incredibly annoying (and unjustified!) as it is a reasonably common thing to want to do. I've also had to use temp tables to get around it (pull the aggregated value into a temp table with an insert statement, then join to this table with your update, then drop the temp table).
Glenn
There is no error in the code. But the error is Thrown because of the following reason.
- Please check weather you have given Read-write permission to MS-Access database file.
- The Database file where it is stored (say in Folder1) is read-only..?
suppose you are stored the database (MS-Access file) in read only folder, while running your application the connection is not force-fully opened. Hence change the file permission / its containing folder permission like in C:\Program files all most all c drive files been set read-only so changing this permission solves this Problem.
I know my answer is 7 years late, but here's my suggestion anyway:
When Access complains about an UPDATE query that includes a JOIN, just save the query, with RecordsetType property set to Dynaset (Inconsistent Updates).
This will sometimes allow the UPDATE to work.
Thirteen years later I face the same issue. DISTINCTROW did not solve my problem, but dlookup did.
I need to update a table from an aggregate query. As far as I understand, MS Access always assumes that de junction between the to-update table and the aggregate query is one-to-many., even though unique records are assured in the query.
The use of dlookup is:
DLOOKUP(Field, SetOfRecords, Criteria)
Field: a string that identifies the field from which the data is retrieved.
SetOfRecords: a string that identifies the set o record from which the field is retrieved, being a table name or a (saved) query name (that doesn’t require parameters).
Criteria: A string used to restrict the range of data on which the DLookup function is performed, equivalent to the WHERE clause in an SQL expression, without the word WHERE.
Remark
If more than one field meets criteria, the DLookup function returns the first occurrence. You should specify criteria that will ensure that the field value returned by the DLookup function is unique.
The query that worked for me is:
UPDATE tblTarifaDeCorretagem
SET tblTarifaDeCorretagem.ValorCorretagem =
[tblTarifaDeCorretagem].[TarifaParteFixa]+
DLookUp(
"[ParteVariável]",
"cstParteVariavelPorOrdem",
"[IdTarifaDeCorretagem] = " & [tblTarifaDeCorretagem].[IdTarifaDeCorretagem]
);
I would try building the UPDATE query in Access. I had an UPDATE query I wrote myself like
UPDATE TABLE1
SET Field1 =
(SELECT Table2.Field2
FROM Table2
WHERE Table2.UniqueIDColumn = Table1.UniqueIDColumn)
The query gave me that error you're seeing. This worked on my SQL Server though, but just like earlier answers noted, Access UPDATE syntax isn't standard syntax. However, when I rebuilt it using Access's query wizard (it used the JOIN syntax) it worked fine. Normally I'd just make the UPDATE query a passthrough to use the non-JET syntax, but one of the tables I was joining with was a local Access table.
This occurs when there is not a UNIQUE MS-ACCESS key for the table(s) being updated. (Regardless of the SQL schema).
When creating MS-Access Links to SQL tables, you are asked to specify the index (key) at link time. If this is done incorrectly, or not at all, the query against the linked table is not updatable
When linking SQL tables into Access MAKE SURE that when Access prompts you for the index (key) you use exactly what SQL uses to avoid problem(s), although specifying any unique key is all Access needs to update the table.
If you were not the person who originally linked the table, delete the linked table from MS-ACCESS (the link only gets deleted) and re-link it specifying the key properly and all will work correctly.
(A little late to the party...)
The three ways I've gotten around this problem in the past are:
Reference a text box on an open form
DSum
DLookup
I had the same issue.
My solution is to first create a table from the non updatable query and then do the update from table to table and it works.
Mine failed with a simple INSERT statement. Fixed by starting the application with 'Run as Administrator' access.
MS Access - joining tables in an update query... how to make it updatable
Open the query in design view
Click once on the link b/w tables/view
In the “properties” window, change the value for “unique records” to “yes”
Save the query as an update query and run it.
You can always write the code in VBA that updates similarly. I had this problem too, and my workaround was making a select query, with all the joins, that had all the data I was looking for to be able to update, making that a recordset and running the update query repeatedly as an update query of only the updating table, only searching the criteria you're looking for
Dim updatingItems As Recordset
Dim clientName As String
Dim tableID As String
Set updatingItems = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("*insert SELECT SQL here*");", dbOpenDynaset)
Do Until updatingItems .EOF
clientName = updatingItems .Fields("strName")
tableID = updatingItems .Fields("ID")
DoCmd.RunSQL "UPDATE *ONLY TABLE TO UPDATE* SET *TABLE*.strClientName= '" & clientName & "' WHERE (((*TABLE*.ID)=" & tableID & "))"
updatingItems.MoveNext
Loop
I'm only doing this to about 60 records a day, doing it to a few thousand could take much longer, as the query is running from start to finish multiple times, instead of just selecting an overall group and making changes. You might need ' ' around the quotes for tableID, as it's a string, but I'm pretty sure this is what worked for me.
I kept getting the same error until I made the connecting field a unique index in both connecting tables. Only then did the query become updatable.
Philip Stilianos
In essence, while your SQL looks perfectly reasonable, Jet has never supported the SQL standard syntax for UPDATE. Instead, it uses its own proprietary syntax (different again from SQL Server's proprietary UPDATE syntax) which is very limited. Often, the only workarounds "Operation must use an updatable query" are very painful. Seriously consider switching to a more capable SQL product.
For some more details about your specific problems and some possible workarounds, see Update Query Based on Totals Query Fails.
I kept getting the same error, but all SQLs execute in Access very well.
and when I amended the permission of AccessFile.
the problem fixed!!
I give 'Network Service' account full control permission, this account if for IIS
When I got this error, it may have been because of my UPDATE syntax being wrong, but after I fixed the update query I got the same error again...so I went to the ODBC Data Source Administrator and found that my connection was read-only. After I made the connection read-write and re-connected it worked just fine.
Today in my MS-Access 2003 with an ODBC tabla pointing to a SQL Server 2000 with sa password gave me the same error.
I defined a Primary Key on the table in the SQL Server database, and the issue was gone.
There is another scenario here that would apply. A file that was checked out of Visual Source Safe, for anyone still using it, that was not given "Writeablity", either in the View option or Check Out, will also recieve this error message.
Solution is to re-acquire the file from Source Safe and apply the Writeability setting.
To further answer what DRUA referred to in his/her answer...
I develop my databases in Access 2007. My users are using access 2007 runtime. They have read permissions to a database_Front (front end) folder, and read/write permissions to the database_Back folder.
In rolling out a new database, the user did not follow the full instructions of copying the front end to their computer, and instead created a shortcut. Running the Front-end through the shortcut will create a condition where the query is not updateable because of the file write restrictions.
Copying the front end to their documents folder solves the problem.
Yes, it complicates things when the users have to get an updated version of the front-end, but at least the query works without having to resort to temp tables and such.
check your DB (Database permission) and give full permission
Go to DB folder-> right click properties->security->edit-> give full control
& Start menu ->run->type "uac" make it down (if it high)
The answer given above by iDevlop worked for me. Note that I wasn't able to find the RecordsetType property in my update query. However, I was able to find that property by changing my query to a select query, setting that property as iDevlop noted and then changing my query to an update query. This worked, no need for a temp table.
I'd have liked for this to just be a comment to what iDevlop posted so that it flowed from his solution, but I don't have a high enough score.
I solved this by adding "DISTINCTROW"
so here this would be
UPDATE DISTINCTROW CLOG SET CLOG.NEXTDUE
I'm attempting to run a simple statement against an Access DB to find records.
Data validation in the records was horrible, and I cannot sanitize it. Meaning, it must be preserved as is.
I need to be able to search against a string with white space and hyphen characters removed. The following statement will work in Access 2010 direct:
select * from dummy where Replace(Replace([data1],' ',''),'-','') = 'ABCD1234';
Running it from an ODBC connection via PHP will not. It produces the following error:
SQL error: [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Undefined function 'Replace' in expression., SQL state 37000 in SQLExecDirect
Creating a query in the database that runs the function and attempting to search its values indirectly causes the same error:
select * from dummy_indirect where Expr1 = 'ABCD1234';
I've attempted to use both ODBC drivers present. ODBCJR32.dll (03/22/2010) and ACEODBC.dll (02/18/2007). To my knowledge these should be current as it was installed with the full Access 2010 and Access 2010 Database Engine.
Any ideas on how to work around this error and achieve the same effect are welcome. Please note, that I cannot alter the database in way, shape, or form. That indirect query was created in another mdb file that has the original tables linked from the original DB.
* Update *
OleDB did not really affect anything.
$dsn= "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\dummy.mdb;";
I'm not attempting to use it as a web backend either. I'm not a sadomasochist.
There is a legacy system that I must support that does use Access as a backend. Data gets populated there from other old systems that I must integrate into more modern systems. Hence, the creation of an API with Apache/PHP that is running on the server supporting the legacy system.
I need to be able to search a table that has an alphanumeric case identifier to get a numeric identifier that is unique and tied to a generator (Autonumber in access). Users have been using it a trash box for years (inconsistent data entry with sporadic notations) so the only solution I have is to strip everything except alphanumeric out of both the field value and the search value and attempt to perform a LIKE comparison against it.
If not replace() which is access supported, what ODBC compatible functions exist that I can use do the same kind of comparison?
Just to recap, the Access db engine will not recognize the Replace() function unless your query is run from within an Access application session. Any attempt from outside Access will trigger that "Undefined function" error message. You can't avoid the error by switching from ODBC to OleDb as the connection method. And you also can't trick the engine into using Replace() by hiding it in separate query (in the same or another Access db) and using that query as the data source for your main query.
This behavior is determined by Access' sandbox mode. That linked page includes a list of functions which are available in the default sandbox mode. That page also describes how you can alter the sandbox mode. If you absolutely must have Replace() available for your query, perhaps the lowest setting (0) would allow it. However, I'm not recommending you do that. I've never done it myself, so don't know anything about the consequences.
As for alternatives for Replace(), it would help to know about the variability in the values you're searching. If the space or dash characters appear in only one or a few consistent positions, you could do a pattern match with a Like expression. For example, if the search field values consist of 4 letters, an optional space or dash, followed by 4 digits, a WHERE clause like this should work for the variations of "ABCD1234":
SELECT * FROM dummy
WHERE
data1 = 'ABCD1234'
OR data1 Like 'ABCD[- ]1234';
Another possibility is to compare against a list of values:
SELECT * FROM dummy
WHERE
data1 IN ('ABCD1234','ABCD 1234','ABCD-1234');
However if your search field values can include any number of spaces or dashes at any position within the string, that approach is no good. And I would look real hard for some way to make the query task easier:
You can't clean the stored values because you're prohibited from altering the original Access db in any way. Perhaps you could create a new Access db, import the data, and clean that instead.
Set up the original Access db as a linked server in SQL Server and build your query to take advantage of SQL Server features.
Surrender. :-( Pull in a larger data set to your PHP client code, and evaluate which rows to use vs. which to ignore.
I'm not sure you can do this with ODBC and your constraints. The MS Access driver is limited (by design; MS wants you to use SQL Server for back ends).
Can you use OLEDB? that might be an option.
I've hit a bit of an impasse. I have a query that is generated by some C# code. The query works fine in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio when run against the same database.
However when my code tries to run the same query I get the same error about an invalid column and an exception is thrown. All queries that reference this column are failing.
The column in question was recently added to the database. It is a date column called Incident_Begin_Time_ts .
An example that fails is:
select * from PerfDiag
where Incident_Begin_Time_ts > '2010-01-01 00:00:00';
Other queries like Select MAX(Incident_Being_Time_ts); also fail when run in code because it thinks the column is missing.
Any ideas?
Just press Ctrl + Shift + R and see...
In SQL Server Management Studio, Ctrl+Shift+R refreshes the local cache.
I suspect that you have two tables with the same name. One is owned by the schema 'dbo' (dbo.PerfDiag), and the other is owned by the default schema of the account used to connect to SQL Server (something like userid.PerfDiag).
When you have an unqualified reference to a schema object (such as a table) — one not qualified by schema name — the object reference must be resolved. Name resolution occurs by searching in the following sequence for an object of the appropriate type (table) with the specified name. The name resolves to the first match:
Under the default schema of the user.
Under the schema 'dbo'.
The unqualified reference is bound to the first match in the above sequence.
As a general recommended practice, one should always qualify references to schema objects, for performance reasons:
An unqualified reference may invalidate a cached execution plan for the stored procedure or query, since the schema to which the reference was bound may change depending on the credentials executing the stored procedure or query. This results in recompilation of the query/stored procedure, a performance hit. Recompilations cause compile locks to be taken out, blocking others from accessing the needed resource(s).
Name resolution slows down query execution as two probes must be made to resolve to the likely version of the object (that owned by 'dbo'). This is the usual case. The only time a single probe will resolve the name is if the current user owns an object of the specified name and type.
[Edited to further note]
The other possibilities are (in no particular order):
You aren't connected to the database you think you are.
You aren't connected to the SQL Server instance you think you are.
Double check your connect strings and ensure that they explicitly specify the SQL Server instance name and the database name.
In my case I restart Microsoft SQL Sever Management Studio and this works well for me.
If you are running this inside a transaction and a SQL statement before this drops/alters the table you can also get this message.
I eventually shut-down and restarted Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio; and that fixed it for me. But at other times, just starting a new query window was enough.
If you are using variables with the same name as your column, it could be that you forgot the '#' variable marker. In an INSERT statement it will be detected as a column.
Just had the exact same problem. I renamed some aliased columns in a temporary table which is further used by another part of the same code. For some reason, this was not captured by SQL Server Management Studio and it complained about invalid column names.
What I simply did is create a new query, copy paste the SQL code from the old query to this new query and run it again. This seemed to refresh the environment correctly.
In my case I was trying to get the value from wrong ResultSet when querying multiple SQL statements.
In my case it seems the problem was a weird caching problem. The solutions above didn't work.
If your code was working fine and you added a column to one of your tables and it gives the 'invalid column name' error, and the solutions above doesn't work, try this: First run only the section of code for creating that modified table and then run the whole code.
Including this answer because this was the top result for "invalid column name sql" on google and I didn't see this answer here. In my case, I was getting Invalid Column Name, Id1 because I had used the wrong id in my .HasForeignKey statement in my Entity Framework C# code. Once I changed it to match the .HasOne() object's id, the error was gone.
I've gotten this error when running a scalar function using a table value, but the Select statement in my scalar function RETURN clause was missing the "FROM table" portion. :facepalms:
Also happens when you forget to change the ConnectionString and ask a table that has no idea about the changes you're making locally.
I had this problem with a View, but the exact same SQL code worked perfectly as a query. In fact SSMS actually threw up a couple of other problems with the View, that it did not have with the query. I tried refreshing, closing the connection to the server and going back in, and renaming columns - nothing worked. Instead I created the query as a stored procedure, and connected Excel to that rather than the View, and this solved the problem.
Does anyone have an idea what this error means or how to solve it? I am using Access 2003 and SQL2005. It comes up when trying to add a record on a particular subform.
[Microsoft][SQL Native Client] Invalid character value for cast specification (#0)
This MS bug report describes the same message, but it is a bug in SQL Server 6.5 that has already been solved.
Solved: Apparently having no PK on the destination table was causing this, it didn't have anything to do with the subform or the query from Access. I wasn't even aware there were tables in this database without PK. Adding PK to the destination table solved it. The strange thing is the same query string that errored when executed via SQL native client, executed through SSMS with no errors. Hope this helps anyone else who has come across that strange message.
Hum, I would check the text box default on the access side. I would also bring up the linked table in design mode, and you want to check the data type that ms-access assumes here. For non supported data types ms-access will generally use a string, and sql server might be wanting something else.
So, check both the Primary key (PK) in main table, and then check the data type used (assumed) in the child table for the foreign key (FK) column. While we are at this, check your expressions used for the child/master link settings in the sub-form control (not the form, not the sub-form, but the sub-form control used in your form that links up these two tables).
Sub forms in access are sensitive if you don’t have a timestamp column in the sql server table. As mentioned check the PK and the FK data types and make sure they match up (just bring up the tables in design mode in ms-access -- you get an error message about the design mode being read only, but just continue on so you can check/view to ensure the data types match up).
So for the child table, you need a PK, a FK, and also a timestamp column (you don’t have to display the TS column in the sub-form, but you need it in the table).
Sub-forms in ms-access are sensitive and often fail if you don’t include a timestamp column in the sql table. (access uses these row version columns to determine if the data been changed).
Is one of your fields in the view calculated/built with the CAST function? In this case, you might not have the right to update/add a value for that field.
Can you execute your view in the MS SQL Studio interface and try to insert a record?
Another cause to this issue is that if you change a table name without alterting the view then the "Dependencies" of that view still remians with the table old name.
Let say I have a table 'A' and a view 'Av' which derives from 'A', and I created a new Table which will be named 'A' and I changed 'A's name to 'A_old' but I didn't executed an ALTER VIEW, so the dependencies of 'Av' still remain on 'A_old' but the view is derives from 'A' and it cuasing this Error in Access when trying to open the view as a linked table
I just spent a day battling this with an Access ADP project that was imported into a new Access 2016 ACCDB file. Initially I figured it was an issue with the application code, but I was getting this keying records directly into the table. Interestingly, the records always got written - it seemed to be the read-back that was triggering the error. Profiling the insert sql and running that from SQL Management Studio worked without any issues.
The table that was causing the problems had a GUID Primary Key. Switching that to an int column resolved the issue.
The SQL database was also littered with a few thousand extended properties which I removed before switching the PK. There was a strong suggestion from the web that these cause problems. The source of that process is documented here: Remove All SQL Extended Properties
I had this problem with Access 2016 trying to update an ODBC linked sQL Server database. Problem was a null value in field used to join the two tables. Eliminating the null value solved the problem
OK I just had this bad experience and it had nothing to do with PK or any of this stuff in my situation. The view that reported this problem in Access was created in SQL Server originally and used a CAST of DATETIME to plain old DATE to get rid of the unneeded time part. Up until today this view had caused 0 issues in Access, but started to generate heartburn just as described above.
So, I generated a Drop/Create script for the MSS view, ran it, relinked the views in Access, and the Access database was happy with the result. All my so-called tables in Access are basically views through links to MSS for reporting. I only have 1 table that actually does changes. Other than that, I do not edit through views in Access.
The message is of course useless as usual but this was my solution in my situation.
Based solely in the message you provided above, it appears that you are trying to set an invalid value to some field or parameter, etc... The message is telling you that it is trying to convert a value into an specific data type but the value is invalid for that data type... makes sense?
Please add more details so we can help you better.