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ACC2000: "Invalid Argument" Error When You Export Data to a Text File

Article ID: 263946 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q263946

Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.

This article applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb).

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SYMPTOMS

When you try to export data from a Microsoft Access 2000 database to a text file, and if the table contains a field with a data type of Number and a field size of Decimal, you may receive the following error message

Invalid argument.

followed by:

An error occurred trying to export data from table 'tablename'. The data was not exported.

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RESOLUTION

To work around this problem when you export the data, select Save formatted in the Export Table dialog box.

-or-

Create a query and use the appropriate conversion function (for example, CDbl, CSng, CInt, and so on) on the field defined as Number with a field size of Decimal.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

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MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

Create a new database.
Create a new table with a least one field that has a data type of Number and a field size of Decimal.
Close and save the table.
In the Database window, right-click the new table, and then click Export.
In the Save as type list, click Text Files(*.txt;*.csv;*.tab;*.asc), and then click Save.
When the Export Text Wizard appears, click Finish.

Note that you receive the error message mentioned in "Symptoms" section of this article.

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