[AccessD] Form Lifetime Control Limit (Was: Advice on A2010....)

Thanks Ken,

That is a good and clear explanation.

Cheers
Darryl.

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Kenneth Ismert
Sent: Tuesday, 13 December 2011 8:27 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Form Lifetime Control Limit (Was: Advice on A2010....)

>
> William Benson:
> I would love to hear MS's defense of this "lifetime" limitation....
>

To answer the first part of your question, it all has to do with default control names.

When you insert a control in a form, it is given a default name, like
text10 or label121. The counter that names the controls is the Lifetime Control Limit counter. Once it hits 754, it gives up.

The reason for that is name collisions. You can't just reset the counter, especially when lots of controls on the form have default names. In this scenario, Access might try to name a new control 'text203', and that name would already exist. In pathological cases, all possible new names for a control could already exist, and then you're stuck.

That is why, in my earlier instructions, I required that you rename all controls with default number-suffixed names before resetting the counter.

It was to avoid name collisions.

So, that is the explanation for the Lifetime Control Limit. Is it stupid?
Yes. Is it lazy? Yes. But it was Microsoft's 'quick and dirty' solution for what they surely imagined was going to be a rare event.

-Ken
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