What causes a 'Record To Large' error when creating a crosstab?

When retrieving a large number of samples to produce a crosstab, you may encounter the following error. 

Visual Basic Run-Time Error 3047 Record is too large.

A query can be only 1000 character wide. When the crosstab export runs it attempts to group column information and build queries to fall within this limit. The text in a query can be only 1000 character wide. Currently the crosstab export pulls 150 columns for each query. So if you select a large number of samples, the export may actually run 3 queries to put the data on the Excel sheet.

This problem can occur in cases where the FieldSampleIDs and/or other information are very long, or if you have a lot of reg limit exceedances, since the background color is part of the data export.

The solution is to reduce the number of samples selected, check field sample IDs, and other items to reduce the size of the query.

Other factors may also be in play in that the VIEWER may need some maintenance. To correct this go to Maintain Database --> and click Clear Temporary Tables then on the Access menu go to Database Tools and click Compact and Repair Database.

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