BUG: ERROR MESSAGE() Function with ODBC Connection Causes Error

Placing the ERROR MESSAGE() function before or after an SQLCONN() command causes Visual FoxPro 5.0x to perform an illegal operation under Windows NT 4.0. Under Windows 95, the following error appears: Clicking the Details button reveals the following message:

The behavior only occurs when the ERROR MESSAGE text is a null string. If any error occurs before SQLConnect() is called, ERROR MESSAGE() reports the text of the last error, and the code does not cause the memory protection fault.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this bug and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Create a program that contains the following code and run the program:

Note You will need to change User UID=<username> and PWD=<strong password> to the correct values before you run this code. Make sure that UID has the appropriate permissions to perform this operation on the database.

   #DEFINE connectionstring ;
      'driver={sql server};server=sql;database=pubs;uid=<username>;pwd=<strong password>'
   connhand = SQLSTRINGCONNECT(connectionstring)
   = SQLDISCONN(connhand)
   ERROR MESSAGE()   && causes error in VFP 5.0x
					

After the code runs, the error described in the SYMPTOMS section appears.