Modules & VBA :: Access Memo Field Copy To Excel Truncates At 255 Characters

Two Solutions to address moving an Access Memo field into Excel when string has > 255 characters. All my 'reports' use Excel VBA (Access Reports are not used). The Excel reports can have 40,000 records. Speed to create the report can be an issue.

Describing 2 Solutions below to address moving Access memo fields with > 255 characters into Excel.After running this code

Code:
720 ObjXL.DisplayAlerts = False
ObjXL.Columns("X:X").Select
ObjXL.Selection.NumberFormat = "@" ' set column to Text
730 ObjXL.Worksheets(intWorksheetNum).Cells(intRowPos, 1).CopyFromRecordset rsNutsAndBolts

The Comments column are limited to 255 characters. So, the CopyFromRecordset (recordsetvariable) creates the 255 character limitation.

The reason? The 255 character limit is because CopyFromRecordset sutomatically uses the Characters property of the Range object. The 255 limit would not be there if the Cell Value property is used to assign the string to that cell.

Dim sRx as String ' String Prescription
sRx = "String with > 255 characters ... you fill in the rest ...."
Cells(1, 1).Value = sRx ' Cell's Value property assignment can be very large

Solution 1:

The record set is still in memory. By using a loop, a cursor can start with record 1 (memo column) and assign that value to the Excel row / column using the .value as shown above. Basically, this moves one memo field at a time, record by record. e.g. Read First recordset in Access, copy to variable, assign value to Excel row/column Then move next on each Access and Excel.

Solution 2:

An Access Memo filed [RxNotes] can have up to 750 characters. Cut it apart into three new fields that end up out in the very right Excel columns AA, AB, AC.

Note1=Mid([RxNotes],1,250)
Note2=Mid([RxNotes],251,250)
Note3=Mid([RxNotes],501,250)
Then using Excel Object - Concat the cells back cell by cell...
X2=CONCATENATE(AA2,AB2,AC2))

Then delete the columns AA, AB, AC to hide the evidence..Neither solution is all that elequent. Read about this and by golly, it made a difference

ConcatComments = "'" & CommentString

Before using the CopyFromRecordset be sure to add a single quote in front of the large string.

Turns out the interface between Access and Excel look for this to prepare Excel immediately for the string to be a string, not something else. Some of my strings had weird print characters that kind of looked like Japenese characters. It seemed random, it always happened if the string was 255 or more characters (ramdonly, not always). The single quote doesn't show up in Excel, but got rid of all the noise.