You cannot set Index property of ADO recordset that is based on a Microsoft Jet database

When you try to set the Index property of an ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) recordset that is based on a table in a Microsoft Jet database, you may receive the following error message:

You are trying to set the Index property of a linked table within the database.

Open a separate ADO connection to the back-end database, and then open the table directly instead of using the linked table. To see an example of how to do this, follow these steps.

NOTE: The sample code in this article uses Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects. For this code to run properly, you must reference the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.x Library (where 2.x is 2.1 or later.) To do so, click References on the Tools menu in the Visual Basic Editor, and make sure that the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.x Library check box is selected.

1. Follow steps 1 through 7 in the "Steps to Reproduce Behavior section" later in this article.
2. Modify the procedure created in steps 1 through 7 in the "Steps to Reproduce Behavior section" later in this article as follows:

   Sub LinkTableSeek()
       Dim cn As ADODB.Connection
       Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
   
       Set cn = New ADODB.Connection
       With cn
           .Provider = "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0"
           .ConnectionString = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft " _
           & "Office\Office10\Samples\Northwind.mdb"
           .Open
       End With
       Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
       With rs
           .ActiveConnection = cn
           .Source = "Customers"
           .CursorLocation = adUseServer
   
           .CursorType = adOpenKeyset
           .Open Options:=adCmdTableDirect
           .Index = "PrimaryKey"
           .Seek "WOLZA"
           If (Not .EOF And Not .BOF) Then
               MsgBox rs.Fields("CompanyName").Value
           Else
               MsgBox "Record not found"
           End If
           .Close
       End With
       Set rs = Nothing
       Set cn = Nothing
   End Sub
   
   						

3. Follow steps 9 and 10 in the "Steps to Reproduce Behavior" section later in this article.

Note that you receive a message with the text "Wolski Zajazd," which is the company name of the CustomerID that the code was seeking.

This behavior is by design.

NOTE: The sample code in this article uses Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects. For this code to run properly, you must reference the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.x Library (where 2.x is 2.1 or later.) To do so, click References on the Tools menu in the Visual Basic Editor, and make sure that the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.x Library check box is selected.

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

1. Start Microsoft Access 2002.
2. Create a new, blank database.
3. On the File menu, point to Get External Data, and then click Link Tables.
4. In the Link dialog box, use the Look in box to locate the sample database Northwind.mdb, which is located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Samples folder by default.
5. After you locate it, click Northwind.mdb, and then click Link.
6. In the Link Tables dialog box, click the Customers table, and then click OK.
7. Create a new module, and then type the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:

   Option Explicit
   						

8. Type the following procedure:

    
   Sub LinkTableSeek()
       Dim cn As ADODB.Connection
       Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
       
       Set cn = CurrentProject.Connection
       Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
       With rs
           .ActiveConnection = cn
           .Source = "Customers"
           .CursorLocation = adUseServer
   
           .CursorType = adOpenKeyset
           .Open Options:=adCmdTableDirect
           .Index = "PrimaryKey"
           .Seek "WOLZA"
           If (Not .EOF And Not .BOF) Then
               MsgBox rs.Fields("CompanyName").Value
           Else
               MsgBox "Record not found"
           End If
           .Close
       End With
       Set rs = Nothing
       Set cn = Nothing
   End Sub
   						

9. On the Debug menu, click Compile project name to verify that the module is compiled correctly.
10. To test the procedure, type the following line in the Immediate window, and then press ENTER:

    LinkTableSeek
    						

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

For additional information about using the Seek method in an ADO recordset based on a table in a Microsoft Jet database, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: