I am running a pretty simple crosstab to return a PersonID, an optional comment field (some null values), and True/False values for the 4 columns. I have other versions (running data off different tables) that work just fine; I have remade the query twice; and if I set the comment field to return First(), then everything is fine. Access gives me Asian characters with a box instead of the text for the comments. The characters show up only in rows that have comments, and as I said earlier, the characters "convert" to text if I set the comment field to First instead of GroupBy.

Any ideas on what's going on? I've googled this without result.

Hi and welcome to UA!

What specific asian characters? do you mean ☺☺ ? (those are meant to be boxes)

Can you post the query?

What is the typical comment that is intended to be displayed?

If it is two little boxes, my guess would be there is a newline in your text somewhere.

Hope this helps,

Adam

I'm not sure what they are, specifically, as I do not read/understand them. I can give you an SS of part of the query, but the security clearance of the data mandates that I can not share much with you without violating policy/law. The attached image shows the characters and what it should look like - the characters come from the query, the desired result comes from the table.

I can also type out the SQL if it will help, let me know.

I can see my little boxes didnt show up :(

Ok - my suggestion would be to take this in steps. First - create a basic query only with the field that is causing the problem. Thats it. Verify that works correctly. Then slowly build up to the full, crosstab query, one field at a time, and see where it is breaking. Take small, baby steps.

Has this been displayed on a form, report, or just the query? Is the result the same? Are there any funny newlines or unprintable characters in the data somewhere that might be popping up? Is there anything different with the regional settings on your comp?

And, yes, If you could post the query's sql (I should have been more specific in my request).

Hope this helps,

Adam

See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 889490.

That KB fixed the problem - my only concern is if the First will affect the data returned. I'll have to run some tests and see if there are any cracks that would let that happen. Thanks all for the help; greatly appreciated.

You're welcome ... Glad to help ...