Work around for 10 character dbf field name limit

[reisende]

Hi everybody,

I need to connect to and retrieve data from an existing DBF table via my ASP application. I can connect and retrieve most data A-OK, but it appears there is a 10 character max for field names that can be returned in ASP/ADO.

For example, a field named [tt]Password[/tt] is returned fine, but [tt]SecurityLevel[/tt] is not going anywhere.

We have quite a few fields that have more than 10 character field names. Does anyone know if there is a way to work around this or are we going to have to rename our fields (Yikes!)?

I'm using a System DSN through ODBC if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance.

 

[chinedu]

I have had to deal with similar situation.
Not only do you have to deal with fieldname limitation, you also have to deal with filename 10-character limitation.

It is not an asp problem; it is a dbf issue.

Yep, the only work around is to rename the fieldnames.

If you don't, it will come back to bite you because what happens if 2 fieldnames are are cut off after the 10 character max? Well if those fieldnames are remotely close as far as naming is concerned, if they could violation of unique constraints.

 

[reisende]

Thanks for the quick reply chinedu.

That's what I was afraid of. Oh well, it should only be a couple extra hours of work to update our existing apps for the field name changes