ACC2000: Exporting to Excel May Cause "Numeric field overflow" Error

ID: Q223225

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Access 2000

Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.

This article applies to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb) and a Microsoft Access project (.adp).

SYMPTOMS

When you export a table that contains a date earlier than 01/01/1900 to Microsoft Excel, you may encounter one of the following problems:

In a Microsoft Access project (.adp), one of the following occurs:

You see the following error message

Numeric field overflow.

and the resulting Excel worksheet does not contain any data.

-or-

You see the following error message

Exceptions tables could not be created on import/export.

and the date field in the Excel worksheet is null.

In an Access database (.mdb), you do not receive an error message, but the date field in the Excel worksheet is null. In a database, an errors table is also generated, marking the records that contain unrecognized dates with Date Out of Range.

CAUSE

Microsoft Excel does not recognize dates earlier than January 1, 1900.

RESOLUTION

Exporting date values earlier than 1/1/1900 to Excel always causes the fields that contain unrecognized dates to be blank. However, you can avoid the errors that you receive when you export from an Access project by upgrading to SQL Server 7.0 or Microsoft Data Engine to Service Pack 1.

For additional information about downloading the service pack, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q232570 How to Obtain Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) 1.0.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior in an Access Database

Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.

Open the Employees table and change the birth date of Andrew Fuller to December 1, 1899.

On the File menu, click Export.

In the Export Table 'Employees' to dialog box, click Microsoft Excel 97-2000(*.xls) in the Files of Type box.

Name the file Test.xls, and then click OK.

Close the Employees table.

In the Database window, click Tables under Objects.

Note that the table, Employees_ExportErrors, has been generated.

Open the Employees_ExportErrors table and view the error record.

Additional query words: pra


Keywords          : kberrmsg kbdta IntpOff 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: August 3, 1999