How to increase size of MDB field via DAO? - ms-access

Question

How can you increase the size of a MDB field size using DAO?

Answer 1

You can do this much more easily with DDL:
Set db = CurrentDb
sSQL = "ALTER TABLE table1 ALTER Column atext text(150)"
db.Execute sSQL, dbFailOnError
Apparently, this is not available in MS Access 97, but in any version in the 15 year since, I would suggest that DDL is the simplest approach.

Answer 2

From http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=4599:
Public Sub change_field_size(DBPath as string, _
tblName As String, fldName As String, fldSize As Integer)
' this routine changes the field size
Dim db As Database
Dim td As TableDef
Dim fld As field
On Error GoTo errhandler
Set db = OpenDatabase(DBPath)
Set td = db.TableDefs(tblName)
If td.Fields(fldName).Type <> dbText Then
' wrong field type
db.Close
Exit Sub
End If
If td.Fields(fldName).size = fldSize Then
' the field width is correct
db.Close
Exit Sub
End If
' create a temp feild
td.Fields.Append td.CreateField("temp", dbText, fldSize)
td.Fields("temp").AllowZeroLength = True
td.Fields("temp").DefaultValue = """"""
' copy the info into the temp field
db.Execute "Update " & tblName & " set temp = " & fldName & " "
' delete the field
td.Fields.Delete fldName
' rename the field
td.Fields("temp").Name = fldName
db.Close
'======================================================================
Exit Sub
errhandler:
MsgBox CStr(Err.Number) & vbCrLf & Err.Description & vbCrLf & "Change Field Size Routine", vbCritical, App.Title
End Sub