>>>Naomi's on the right track: that field will be set as either 7 chars or 8 chars depending on which option appears in the first row of the current query; but the DBC says it is -- well, whatever showed up when it tried to run it when making the DBC entry (it actually opens the view when doing this). Using CAST() will make it a definite length.
>>
>>Hi thanks
>>the code worked but when my view is run(the original code) if says IIF the status =1 do X as applstatus so yes the length will vary but im not too sure why that would be an error
>>
>Hi Ken
>
>PDMFJI
>
>asume:
>
>the first run of the view returns the short string only (lets say c(5) )
>IOW the column of the view is defined with the short c(5)
>
>a later run (requery) returns the long string too. Now the view needs to hold a c(10) but is defined as c(5) so its definition is changed
>
>this is what the error says.
>
>O.K.?
>
>Agnes

Ohhhh i can see why that will create an error thnks!