ACC: How to Find Access Basic Error Codes

MORE INFORMATION

This article assumes that you are familiar with Access Basic and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information on Access Basic, please refer to the "Introduction to Programming" manual in Microsoft Access version 1.x, or the "Building Applications" manual, Chapter 3, "Introducing Access Basic" in version 2.0.

There are approximately 700 error messages that can result from running Access Basic code. To print a list of the error values and descriptions to the Immediate window, add the sample function below to a module:

   Function PrintErrorStrings ()
      For i = 1 To 32766
         E$ = Error$(i)
         If E$ <> "User-defined error" And E$ <> "Reserved Error" Then
            Debug.Print i; Error$(i)
         End If
      Next i
   End Function
				

The following example demonstrates how to save the error code list in a table:

1. Create a new table with the following fields. Save the table as Error Codes:
   

         Table Name: Error Table
         -----------------------
         Field Name: Err
            Data Type: Number
            Field Size: Integer
         Field Name: Error
            Data Type: Text
            Field Size: 255
   						

2. Create the following function in a new module.
   

         Function FillErrorTable()
            Dim MyDB As Database, MyTable As Recordset
            Dim i As Integer
            Dim e$
   
            Set MyDB = CurrentDb()
            Set MyTable = MyDB.OpenRecordset("Error Codes")
   
            For i = 1 To 32766
               e$ = Error$(i)
               If e$ <> "User-defined Error" And e$ <> "Reserved Error" Then
                  MyTable.AddNew
                  MyTable![Err] = i
                  MyTable![Error] = e$
                  MyTable.UPDATE
                End If
            Next i
            MyTable.Close
            MyDB.Close
         End Function
   						

3. Type the following line in the Immediate window, and then press ENTER:
   
   ? FillErrorTable()

The error codes and descriptions will be written to the Error Codes table.

The Microsoft Access Help system contains descriptions of the errors. However, the error values are not in the Help system. To determine the error value, match the description to the values returned by the FillErrorTable() function.