Hi,

I have a relatively straight-forward table, with about two dozen fields. When I look at it in datasheet view, I have a problem with the "sort/filter" option box that shows when you click on the upside-down triangle to the right side of the field name.

When I click on that arrow for most of the fields, the sort/filter works just as expected, with the sort options A->Z or Z->A, then the Text Filters option, THEN a list of all the possible entries for that field so that the user can check or uncheck the boxes next to the desired entries.

However, about 5 fields do not show any entries. I would understand that if the fields were empty, but they're not. There should be a list of data entries below the "Text Filters" line.

Does anyone have a suggestion for why my list is missing on these fields?

(The fields in question are pretty boring, last name, phone number, things like that.)

Thanks.

Hi Anne

This does not answer your question but I thought I should point out that it is NOT recommended for Users to
have access to your tables.

Remember the table contains all of your critical data and should be hidden from the users.

They should only have access to the data via Forms

Hope this helps?

Mike

Anne,

If you create a simple Select Query with a few of these Fields that you don't see any data in, can you see any of the data from the Fields?

RAZ

Hi Mike,

The users don't have access to the tables but this same problem occurs when they click on the "Filter" button in the Quick Access toolbar that I designed for their use.

I thought that it would be simpler to post my question without reference to the forms the users see, since the same behavior occurs either in form view or datasheet view.

Thanks for the advice, though.

Anne

Hi RAZ,

Yes, I see all the data in those "problem" fields. They look and behave just as I would expect, with this one exception.

At first I thought that it might be some sort of invisible control character problem, as I imported the data from Excel and I've found problem characters in the spreadsheets before. However, I ran a checking program looking for any characters in these fields that wasn't a letter, number, or punctuation (in other words, control characters), and found none. So that theory was shot down.

Anne

What happens if you make the Row Height taller?

Interesting question. I increased the row height to more than double the standard height and nothing changed.

What about an index on the fields in question? Would that make a difference?

I'm sorry, so when you created that simple query that I asked you to create before, you were able to see all the data "except, with this one exception." So, even in a basic select query you were still not able to see this one Field?

Also, these Fields that you cannot see are they all next to each other in the TABLE?

Edited by: RAZMaddaz on Wed Dec 9 14:09:06 EST 2009.

Sorry that I didn't make that clear. I made a simple query including all the five fields which have this problem, and I was able to see the data in all of them. They looked perfectly normal. However, I was unable to see the list of possible entries when I clicked on the "sort/filter" arrow.

I just tried that and it made no difference. Thanks for trying, though!

Hi RAZ,

When I made the simple query I included the "problem" fields and I could see all the data in them. They looked normal. They are not next to each other in the Table -- several fields are between each one and the next.

Thanks for trying to help.

Anne

I think I've found the answer to my own problem and I will give my theory here for anyone who wants it.

The fields of my table that were showing the weird sort/filter behavior are all fields that have many, many unique values. I have over 2,000 records in the table and the fields of LastName, Street, Phone, were among those giving me trouble. Other fields such as ContactResult, which have a limited number of options, were behaving just fine.

I tested this theory out by recreating a structure identical to my first table. I added one dummy record with junk data. Then I tried to sort/filter each field -- they all worked perfectly, displaying the junk data entry for the chosen field as a list to check or uncheck.

Then I appended all the original data from my original table. I was back to square one. The fields in question did not show any entries to select for filtering.

So I know that one record works just fine, while over 2,000 records do not. Looking over my list of which fields show the problem and which do not, it seems clear that it's only the ones with lots and lots of unique values that present the problem.

Thanks to everyone who offered tips and tried to help.