I have a Microsoft Word template with some code and some references, that has been working fine for months but has just started throwing up a spurious "User-defined type not defined" error whenever I open it or try to compile it.
I know it's a spurious error because I haven't made any significant changes to the code. In fact, I've rolled the code back to the last deployed version (which I know works fine) and I still get the error. I've also commented out all the code in the template and I still get the error. I've also removed and re-added all references (same error), and removed all the references and added them back, one by one, until the resultant compile errors are resolved, at which point I'm left with the spurious "User-defined type not defined" error. (I'm going to call this a UDTND error, from now, to avoid driving you all mad.) I think the error started popping up after I rebooted my PC. It only happens with this template, but I don't see how it can be anything to do with this template.
Interestingly, the error is subtly different from a genuine UDTND error in the following ways:
No code is highlighted when the error is displayed.
The dialog is titled "Microsoft Visual Basic", and contains the error message but, unlike a real UDTND error, doesn't contain the text "Compile error:";
It happens when the template is opened, not just when it's compiled (at least, I think that's different from a normal error).
I've tried Googling it but I just get a bazillion results from novice developers asking why they get this error, with responses telling them that they either need to declare the missing type, correct the spelling of the offending variable type, or add a reference to a missing library. I've been banging my head against my screen all afternoon, and that's helped about as much as all the other things I've tried (i.e. not at all). I have a feeling that this is something to do with a messed-up reference, but afaict they're all fine, and I've removed and re-added them, which I would expect to resolve that sort of problem.
Any ideas...?
Your trouble-shooting on References is sound. Once upon a time (and I don't recall the precise error) I was at the same point, and the reference ordering was the key. When you're designating References, you'll notice a "Priority" adjustment feature. Experiment with that and you may solve this.
I have had "User-defined type not defined" problem on several occasions when compiling Microsoft Visual Basic 6 (MSVB6) code that was compiling without a problem earlier. It seems to happen after I have had a long coding session without rebooting the computer. As you can guess, I have been using Microsoft operating systems. I currently am using Windows XP. Rebooting the computer usually fixes the problem as it so often does on Microsoft operating systems.
I have read that fully qualifying declarations also can help, e.g., "Dim oBar as Foo.Bar" instead of "Dim oBar as Bar". I have not tried this approach however.
I had a very similar problem.
My problem appeared (I think) just after I made a Search and Replace that I canceled (Ctrl+Z). There was not highligting of the problem, only the ""User-defined type not defined" error message when I compiled.
I tried:
1) restarting computer
2) changing reference ordering
3) removing functions/procedures, modules one at a time.
Didn't work. My project was written in Excel VBA and here was the solution I found.
THE SOLUTION:
I opened a new Excel file and opened the Visual Basic Editor. I then copied all Forms, Modules, and Class Modules one by one into the new file. I then Copied the Control Objects (3 Commandbuttons) from the old sheet into the new one. Now the new file was identical to the old project - only the ""User-defined type not defined" had gone and problem was solved.
Yea references would be the first step in troubleshooting this problem as already stated, but failing that id start commenting out the code in any event procedures running at start up (my experience is only with Access VBA though)
I had the same problem with Excel 2013.
It started when I did a search and replace on the name of a Custom Class.
I changed the name of the Class after I did the search and replace on all references to it and the spurious error started immediately after that.
I reverted to an earlier version ad confirmed that the problem was not there and then did the same search and replace and re-name and got the exact same behaviour again.
The Custom Class that I changed the name of only had one consumer and it was also a custom class.
I exported, removed and re-loaded the sole consumer class and the problem was fixed.
Check out this link for a Microsoft bug that might be related.
TLDR:
The reference to a package/addin/whatever probably needs to be re-referenced. Check Tools -> References in the Menu.
Also it appears that if you install Microsoft Security Advisory 960715, that certain controls are killed. There are fixes which may or may not work for you. A good article is on this blog:
VSOD Blog
Related
Having a very odd issue with Visual Studio 2013, curious if anyone else is seeing anything similar. I have VS 2013 Ultimate, it seems like once a day, while I'm working with a file, the compiler just suddenly freaks out and doesn't detect my code anymore in my web forms. Take a look at the screenshot below (I just chose a random spot in the middle of the web form), but out of nowhere, VS starts erroring, telling me that variables aren't declared, that method arguments need parenthesis on lines of code that aren't methods, all sorts of whacky stuff.
I assure you, I don't have any broken references, I didn't forget to close an if statement.. nothing like that. All I'm doing it writing some code, and randomly the whole page just starts to error like this. To resolve, all I can do is copy the code contents, delete the page, recreate the page, and paste the contents back into my "new" file... same exact code, only no errors. I wouldn't even worry about doing this if I wasn't doing this at least once a day.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
Edit: For what it's worth, I found a slightly easier workaround for this issue. If I edit the properties of the class file to "Do not Compile" and then back to "Compile", the IDE is able to read the file just fine...
It looks like this is simply a bug in the Vb.Net Compiler / IDE. I agree it's unlikely to be a bug in your code because you can see that the error squiggles don't line up with places that would represent the errors you are reporting. This is sometimes a sign of an IDE bug
In terms of fixing the problem though you can probably get them to go away by closing and reopening the solution in question. Baring that restarting Visual Studio. I wouldn't resort to deleted / recreating the page.
Long term though you may want to file an issue on connect so the IDE team can try and fix the problem.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio
I'm working on a big Access 2003 project with Microsoft Access 2007. Recently, some users have started to experience problems with the buttons in my forms. For example, without any specific reason, clicking on a button or trying to execute any code will return the error:
File not found
There is no way to go into debug mode. When this happens the only thing to do is to restart the database. I tried adding the Stop command at the beginning of the executed block to try debugging it, but no code is executed at all. It's like a compilation error but it's only happening 5-10% of the time, which is really weird.
After some research, I found other people are having the same problem, for example this and this link. There are other examples too, with no real solutions yet.
My database can be okay for a week and then the problem starts to happen again. Half the time and users can't do much; they need to restart the database once or twice to get it back working, and after a few minutes the error might happen again.
Because this is Access 2007 and there are a lot of people experiencing this bug, I can't believe it isn't more documented.
What's the problem? Is the database somehow partially corrupted? What should I do? This is really annoying.
If I was in this situation one of the first things I would try would be to do a complete decompile+compact+recompile operation on the front-end database file, and then distribute that updated front-end out to the users to see if that improves things.
Detailed instructions on the decompile+compact+recompile steps are available here. Note: Be sure to read David W. Fenton's additional recommendations in his answer.
I had just experienced this for the first time. I had been making extensive coding changes in a form, and was required to reboot my PC without finishing debugging the code. When I opened the app, I immediately got the "file not found" message (it auto-starts a different form).
On a whim, I went to the form in question and commented out that entire module's code and the problem went away. After I went back in and uncommented that code, everything still worked as normal. I was able to continue debugging that code and lived for the rest of the day happily.
though this thread is over a year old I would like to share another very helpful observation.
This error "File not found:" may be caused by differing save behavior of Office versions and may not have anything to do with your code! In case of this error, try to open and save your troubled file in another Office version and it may work fine back in your main Office version.
Details:
Though programming VBA for years now, I had never had an unsolicited "File not found:" error. Weird also that the error message does not give a file name for the file not found. (Reminded me of another nasty error VBA sometimes shows on startup for no obious reason and erratically.) Luckily this error started after my first edits in PowerPoint 2010 after having tested the file in PowerPoint 2016. The error occurred when opening the .pptm but I had no startup procedure involving a file. So I've got the idea of some file in the .pptm zip archive not being found. Started to do a quick search on the internet and found only "shooting in the dark" suggestions. As I could start PowerPoint 2013 more easily (virtual machine) than PowerPoint 2016 (different Windows 10 boot partition), I tried to open the troubled file in PowerPoint 2013 and had no problems. I compiled the VBA project to check for error. Nothing. And save the file. After this re-saving in PowerPoint 2013, the file seems to work fine again in PowerPoint 2010 und did not show any problems after the first few edits, saves and re-opening. This being said, I wonder if PowerPoint 2016 saving is peculiar and if I can replicate/if I will run into the error again if saving the file again in PowerPoint 2016 and returning to PowerPoint 2010. (I'll make a note of this thread to add new insights once I worked with this file again in PowerPoint 2016.)
Hope this observation may spare many unnecessary un-/re-installations of Office and other desperate attempts.
Cheers!
A similar thing has just happened to me a couple of times with one of my .mdb front ends running in Access 2013, after the August 2019 update to Windows 10.
My DBs too have been through several versions of Access. On opening the database it says 'File Not Found' and throws up a public module (not one on which I have been working extensively recently), without opening the Autoexec (Switchboard) form. 'Debug, Compile' is possible and doesn't suggest any problem.
For me too, typing one space (or blank line or other character) anywhere in the code, and then deleting it, and saving, closing and re-opening seemed to provide a workaround, and all has been well for the last few days (I am the only user at present).
There is no one obvious module involved, although I will probably suspect the form module I have been working on most recently if the problem persists in a troublesome way.
Now, a few days later I have de-compiled, compacted and re-compiled the database, halving its size, so maybe that will have done the trick. I hope so.
I just had this problem. In my case, I think the issue is having a blank VBA module. I was moving procedures from one module to another and ended-up with a blank module. I couldn't delete the module manually and every time I tried to create a procedure to delete blank modules, I received the "File not found" error and the procedure I had just created was blanked out. I ended-up reverting to a backup.
The issue is just your references. One of the files for your references has been moved/deleted/updated. Remove and re-add your references to figure out which one.
I had a problem similar to this. A blank "File Not Found" error.
I turned off AutoCorrect and after clicking through several prompts/warnings which had me concerned, I then reopened the database and the error went away.
When reopening the database the problem was resolved.
I suspect this will fix many "File not found" errors which are probably related to the temporary link table losing a reference for whatever reason.
I had this same issue MS Excel.
On the user pressing a button a useless File Not Found error appeared.
I ran through all suggested above and no change or help.
COMPLETELY ACCIDENTALLY I removed a module that i use for updating the Application status. This also has some array storage within. However, on removing this module (and commenting out references to it within my code) it appears that the issue is now fixed across users.
One Issue, is I have the same Module name within several different deployment's of Excel Add-ins. I suspect that on first run Excel isn't able to automatically assume the difference between them.
I had noticed a WORK AROUND for the error in which you create a break point on the first line of code for the button in question and then resume on break - I assume that this helped Excel evaluate and namespace the modules as to not cause conflicts.
I had that problem and solved it this way: I eliminated the form where the vba code was and imported the same form from a backup file made before.
I found yet another solution (at least in my case): In trying to find the error, I tested the application I created on a co-workers computer. This somehow reset whatever went haywire in the file. Afterwards I was able to open up the file on my computer again and everything worked as it should!
EDIT: I have realized that the error, im my case, seems to have been connected in some way to my using SendKeys (see my attempt to automate a report here on SO).
Had the same problem. I stumbled on the fix by accident. For whatever reason, simply adding an on-click Event Procedure made everything better.
Open the form in design mode
Select an object on the form
Press F4 to display the object's properties
Event > On Click > dropdown > click [Event Procedure]
Then click the three dots, which will create a new event, and launch the Visual Basic editor. This will also add default code into the Visual Basic editor
Make no other changes
Save and close changes to the form
Restart the database
For what its worth, as I was wrestling with this issue, the error resolved itself in other ways, but none of them were repeatable.
I had this problem as well, and compact/repair did not fix it. In my case I had an old VBA module that was no longer used, and which referenced an object class that no longer existed. Removing the non-compiling code fixed the issue for me.
I have had this problem for many years now in access 2010. Always in the Autoexec form that opens on msaccess startup. I tried creating a very simple form that calls the original more complex form. To my surprise the more problem moved the the new simple form. By trial and error, I found that just editing the new simple Autoexec form the problem would go away, but turn up randomly months later ALWAYS after I had made programming changes elsewhere. Sometimes instead of the file not found error, I get just get a crash out of access - but the solution is the same procedure - make a small edit to the autoexec file (just add new blank line will do). My project has come through many versions of access (2000 -> 2010). If there was some way to automate the editing of my autoexec form, then restarting access - this would serve as a workaround. I have not found any way as yet.
I have had this problem for years in my access database. I tried all the above solutions an they all fixed the problem, only to have the problem reappear sometime later - always after VBA code change. I discovered that decompiling and then recompiling ALWAYS FIXES this problem, and is the quickest and easiest way to do so. So I have concluded that there is a bug in way Office only partly compiles after program changes like macros and VBA code changes. After a number of changes the system gets 'unhinged' and throws up the 'file not found' error. Reading thru the fixes users have found in this blog supports my theory. Nearly all these fixes would probably cause some sort and recompile the unhinged code.
MY SOLUTION
In summary I have found the following..
Doing a Decompile (without a recompile) will get rid of the error - but if the code is run on a different machine the error appears again.
Doing a decompile, then a recompile followed by a Compact and Repair results makes my app run on other machines with out any problems.
I had a class module - Class1 - that was not used. I deleted it and did a compact and repair.
Something happened that caused the name of the class module to stay in the Navigation Pane but the module as such was removed:
When opening the VBA editor I got the "File not found".
Impossible to delete the name from the Navigation Pane!!
When decompiling the project I got "An error occurred while loading 'Class1'. Do you want to continue loading the project?"
I did - now the Class1 was still in Navigation Pane when opening project again but now I could delete from the Navigation Pane.
After that the message about file not found no longer appeared.
FYI
Using VB for Excel in Excel 2003, I have no problems executing code with some non-declared variables:
numberOfBooks = 0
However, if I try to execute the same code in Excel 2007, I get a "Can't find project or library" error message.
I looked at Tools > Options and I don't have checked "Require Variable declaration". In Excel 2003 I did not use Option Explicit
What am I doing wrong? Thank you very much.
I have seen this advice (check references) a number of times and it makes sense!
However, when the fault: "can't find project or library" develops, you are in run mode and I cannot get out of it?
Waht am I missing?
I'd definitely second Daniel Cook's suggestion of checking your references list; that may be it. However I've come across some situations over the last couple of months where that error will occur in an Excel 2007 even if there is nothing wrong with the references. In part it seems to relate to the security updates that were released in August 12 ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms12-aug ). It caused some breakage in the mscomctl.ocx. The problem and (one) resolution (basically, re-registering the .ocx) is discussed in this IBM link which relates to an Excel add-in for an OLAP product called TM1: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21608271. (The error messages aren't the same as the ones that you've been getting, but I DID get your error messages on another add-in that I wrote which were not missing any references, and it turned out to be the same problem.)
The other thing I'd suggest doing is a purge of your .exd files as discussed here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290537 I've also found that those can cause bogus library errors, particularly after a version upgrade.
As for anything else you're doing wrong, well, personally I tend to skin anyone who works for me without using Option Explicit. 8^>
One of our companie's excel-macros (which ran quite frequently without any issues so far) all of a sudden came up with exactly the same error.
We didn't touch the code for like forever. And I honestly have still no idea what actually caused this error. Mistery Microsoft maybe? Anyways.. I finally were able to fix the bug.
Even though "Require Variable declaration" was disabled and Option Exlicit was not set in my case, declaring the variable first did the trick for me:
Dim numberOfBooks As Integer: numberOfBooks = 0
I hope this saves some headaches.
I'm seeing a strange build bug a lot. Sometimes after typing some code we receive the following build error.
Class 'clsX' must implement 'Event PropertyChanged(sender As Object, e As PropertyChangedEventArgs)' for interface System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged'.
And
'PropertyChanged' cannot implement 'PropertyChanged' because there is no matching event on interface 'System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged'.
Those error should never go together! Usually we can just ignore the exception and build the solution but often enough this bug stops our build. (this happens a lot using Edit and Continue which is annoying)
We're using Vb.net and c# mixed in one big solution.
Removing the PropertyChanged event and retyping the same code! sometimes fixes this.
Question:
Has anyone else seen this problem and has some suggestions how to prevent his?
We're using a code generator that causes this error to surface but just editing some files manually triggers this exception too. This error occur's on multiple machines using various setups.
Someone had the same exact issue discussed here. It sounds like there is an issue with this build picking up an old version of a binary. I would try the following in order:
Verify all assembly references use project references where possible within the Visual Studio solution.
Disable build parallelization in case there is some weird file locking issue with concurrent project builds. Go to Tools -> Options, Projects and Solutions -> Build and Run, then set "maximum number of parrellel project builds" to 1. Not the best solution but it may help narrow down the problem.
Disable the Hosting Process in case it's locking some file causing an assembly to not get rebuilt correctly. For C# project go to Project Properties, Debug tab, and uncheck "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process". For VB.NET project you'll need to Unload Project, Edit the project file, and add <UseVSHostingProcess>false</UseVSHostingProcess> to the PropertyGroup of each configuration. Again, not the best solution but you probably won't notice a difference.
Lastly, try doing a Clean + Build to try and resolve the issue when it occurs (I know this is not a fix but it's easy enough to do), also Rebuild may be slightly different than Clean + Build so try the latter if the former doesn't work.
As I can not comment due to lack of appropriate points.
But I would like to share one of my experience:
In an aspx.cs page I was working, used to compile fine and some time gave mysterious error of a variable not defined or function not defined or sometime variable or the function defined two times. I changed possibly each and every variable and function name but there seemed no effect , but after entering a simple space or a new line at any place in the file used to solve the compile error. At one time I tried to save the file (in a different encoding as i am used to experiments) and found that the file was not saving in the correct encoding (i.e. the ansi encoding because the file had a unicode character ), I removed the unicode character and that compile error didn't bothered me again.
This unicode character problem could be (not a hard and fast rule) there so you could check it.
Nuke & restore using source control (TFS instructions here):
Make sure you have everything checked in
Exit Visual Studio
Rename the project directory to .Bak (effectively deleting it)
Reopen Visual Studio and in source control:
Get Specific Version
check 'Overwrite... not checked out' and 'Overwrite ... even if local version matches'
Re-open project
Another problem: Make sure some source files are not newer than the current date (or your date is set back). Often this happens in apps where you are doing logic that requires certain things to happen differently on certain dates. You change your clock to test it, make a revision to the source with the date advanced, set the date back, and viola, rebuild does not rebuild that file.
You say 'typing it in again' - can you try just saving? After 40 years since MULTIX the .net build still decides what has changed by checking the file timestamp.
good luck!
When you get the error, is it always on the VB calling C# side, or vice-versa, or does it work both ways?
If the answer is either of the first two situations, try building the "callee" project within the solution before building the "caller" project to see if it stops the situation.
Also, just in case it may jog something for you to think about, does this error crop up when you change a VB file or a C# file, or is there no correllation?
Oh, and sorry this looks like an answer instead of a comment, I cannot post comments yet (need 50 rep).
I have a VB.Net solution that another developer created and I'm trying to compile it on our build machine (it compiles on their machine) but with one of the projects I get an error saying something along the lines of:
Imyinterface is ambiguous in the namespace anamespaceassembly.
I have tried with no success:
examined the references to see any obvious errors
removed and re-added the assembly in question
searched the system for the same dll
attempted to compile the original deve's src (.v the source control version)
examined the assembly with ildasm.exe
I usually code in C# and have not seen this error before (in this form at least), not that it is VB.Net specific but the UI for adding/viewing references is slightly different so I thought maybe VB.Net might do something different with references.
I also tried to compile on another machine, and it compiles ok. So I assume it is something with the build machine but I'm not sure what. Other conflicting assemblies somehow not referenced by the project, is that possible??
Any ideas?
Check your references if you have two versions of the same reference (eg. Microsoft.ReportViewer.Webforms version 10.0.0.0 and Microsoft.ReportViewer.Webforms 8.0.0.0) You will get this error. Delete the oldest and you should be good. I do this to myself all of the time.
There can be a few causes for this error. In VB, you should be aware that more names then you're used to from C# are available without class specification. Also, case does not matter in VB, which can further liken the chances on collisions.
Even in the event that you don't find the actual conflicting issue, you can resolve this in the same way you would in C#: rename it in the Imports statement:
Imports IM = yourAssembly.Imyinterface
Then change the code such that uses of Imyinterface are replace with IM.
NOTE: If the error does not point to a particular line, the conflict may be out of your hand. Normally, a full Clean Solution and Rebuild helps a lot, but occasionally a misbehaving file (i.e., another error) causes this error to popup first without clear source. Try to rollback recent changes to the place where it did work.
You also say it worked on another machine. Chances are that your machine is having a different version of MS Visual Studio or .NET. Check and compare the exact versions.
I was facing same issue. I upgraded my application from vb6 to vb.net and when i change the build configuration from DEBUG to RELEASE then i got AMBIGUOUS errors.
I found dulicate references folder in solution Explorer. I removed those duplicate referecnces and Build sucessfully. I Hope it may help others.
Thanks for the responses! I tried each but still was having issues.
One point of info I left out of the original question was that the VB.net projects are upgrades from VB6 projects. At the time I did not think that was relevant.
After investigating further the build machine was used to build the VB6 projects also. So I ran 'reg32 /u' on the vb6 dlls and that seemed to fix the VB.net issue.
Not exactly sure why this fixed it since I was not referencing the VB6 dlls, I'm guessing something to do with ambiguous entries in the registry confusing the vb.net project.