XL2000: Certain ODBC Drivers Do Not Support Long File Names

In Microsoft Query 2000 or Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, when you attempt to open a file saved in one of the following formats

• dBASE
• FoxPro
• Paradox
• Text

you may receive an error message if the file name contains more than eight characters (not including the characters that comprise the file name extension).

In Query 2000, you may receive the following error message: When you use Data Access Objects (DAO) in a Visual Basic for Applications macro, you may receive one the following error messages where the file being accessed is named My File.dbf. The object name in the error message that you receive may be different from those described in this article.

If you need to open dBase or Microsoft FoxPro files with long file names in Microsoft Query or DAO, install the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver.

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

The Microsoft ODBC drivers for dBASE-formatted files that are for use on the Macintosh operating system do support long file names. However, it is still necessary for these names to remain compatible with MS-DOS-based versions of dBASE software products. For this purpose, the driver mentioned in this article supports only file names that conform to the 8.3 MS-DOS file-naming convention.