Knowledge Base

PRB: Invalid Key Length Error When Indexing a Cursor File

Article ID: 140760

Article Last Modified on 11/17/2003

Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual FoxPro 5.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition

This article was previously published under Q140760

SYMPTOMS

Indexing a cursor file with a key field that contains more than 240 characters generates this error:

Invalid Key Length

This procedure did not generate an error in FoxPro version 2.6.

CAUSE

This is a deliberate change in behavior. The maximum length for an index key in a compact index is 240 bytes. If a key is longer than 240, FoxPro 2.6 truncates it. Visual FoxPro 3.0, 5.0 and 6.0 display the "Invalid Key Length" error message to protect against the possiblity of generating duplicates.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

This error message also occurs with a table.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Type the following commands in the Command window:

   CREATE CURSOR Address (address C(254))
   INDEX ON address TAG address

The "Invalid Key Length" error message is displayed.

REFERENCES

For more information on Visual FoxPro 3.0 system capacities, search for "System capacities" in the FoxPro Help file.

Additional query words: VFoxWin

Keywords: kbprb KB140760