[Solved] Cannot enter data in one particular field anymore

[GuidoThys]

Hi, I am an amateur user so I am not all too sophisticated. Nevertheless I managed to create a table and a form for data entry, containing a large number of fields.
I have managed to import a lot of data from Excel and added a few hundred records by using the form since.
Until now everything worked fine (although rather slowly, but I can live with that).
All of a sudden one field does not work anymore:
- it still appears in the form
- it also appears in the table and all data entered in it upto now seem intact
- I can enter data into the field in the form, in new as well as in existing records
- however, the "save"-button (floppy with green arrow) on the form navigation toolbar does not become clickable (as it does when I enter data in all the other fields)
- when I use the arrow keys to go to next or previous records (still in the form), the data I just entered move along to those records (so in my amateur lingo: it looks as if the data somehow get stuck on the form and never reach the database)
- when I save and close the form, all data are stored, except the data of that particular field.

System info: version 4.1.3. on a windows10 laptop.

Thanks for any suggestions as to what is going wrong!

P.S. I can upload the .odb file if required and if uploading 380 Mb is ok on this forum.

[UnklDonald418]

Uploading the .obd will probably be needed for anyone to duplicate your problem.
But 380MB is too large to upload here.
There is a tutorial on uploading that shows options for sharing oversize files.
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=8289

[GuidoThys]

Hi UnklDonald418,
thank you your reply.
I have uploaded the file with MediaFire: http://www.mediafire.com/file/f5r653460 ... ustrie.odb

Some more details: it is a partial list of publishers in the city of Antwerp (Belgium) in the 15th to 20th century, so it does not contain any confidential or privacy-sensitive data.
The malfunctioning field is called "Anders", column no. 13 in the table.
Please check the 2nd form "Basisgegevens bewerken1" (the first one is an older version). The field is the widest yellow field in the bottom left corner of the opening screen, it is called "Andere".
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[RPG]

Hello

The table field in the tables is "Anders" and you use in your form "Andere".
That are two different names.

Romke

[RPG]

Hello

Maybe as explanation. You can have a different label but the data-field in your form and table must be the same.

Romke

[GuidoThys]

Romke, sorry about the misunderstanding. The field name is the same in the table and the form. The label is different.

[RPG]

Hello

I think: select again the correct field for that control.

Romke

[UnklDonald418]

I agree with Romke.
When I tried your form I got the results you described.
When I opened the form in the design mode and checked the Control Properties for txtAndere it showed Andere as the data source.
So I selected the field Anders from the field list.
Now it works fine.

[UnklDonald418]

By the way your De Antwerpse boekindustrie.obd is in need of some cleanup.

Go to Tools->SQL and execute the following command.

Code: Select all

CHECKPOINT DEFRAG;
SHUTDOWN COMPACT;

Close the database and your file size will shrink significantly and and the performance will also be improved.

[UnklDonald418]

I have further comments after looking a little closer at Table1.
A common mistake made by those new to databases is to cram everything into a single table. This is not efficient, often wasting large amounts of space. When using Base all your data must be loaded into memory, so wasted space translates to wasted memory and that can cause performance issues.
I lost count, but you have too many fields in Table1.
You have a number of groups of fields such as BronN1, BronN2 … BronN10 and BronD1, BronD2 … BronD10 that are mostly empty, and looking at them all I estimate they are wasting over 8MB of memory when loading your table.
It would probably be more efficient to have a separate table for BronN and another table for BronD and there are several more series of fields that also should probably be stored in separate tables.
Base uses the HSQL relational database engine. You should learn some of the basics of database design so you can harness some of the efficiency and power that is available to users of relational databases.

[GuidoThys]

All: thank you, I checked the field and the form did indeed contain the wrong field. Which is weird because I haven't edited the form in over a year. and it worked fine before. Thanks for insisting!

UnklDonald418: thanks for kicking my butt re splitting up the tables. I know the princliple: I used to be a very proficient dBase II/II/IV & Clipper programmer (centuries ago), I even fully automated the first call center in Europe back then.... I just haven't followed up on all the new platforms and languages for the past 25 years. I looked for instructions or a tutorial 2 years ago when I created this database but couldn't find one. At this time I was so ashamed of my amateur behaviour that I looked further and found what I need. I'll start working on it tonight!