is there an - easy - possibility to outwit the 255 entries limit of comboboxes ?

[brigitteAT]

is there an - easy - possibility to outwit the 255 entries limit of comboboxes?
if yes great, thank you in advance
if no - don't care - just let me know - I know how to go on without

the background - I have been so enthusiastic, that all of my "programme-features" now work as they shall that
I started to create "folders" to store all the information which I have to keep over the next 22 years...


"client1" - "information 2020" "information 2019", "information 2018".....
"client2" - "information 2020" "information 2019", "information 2018".....
but with about 40 clients from the past, over 20 years, this makes about 800 "folders"

for now I have set all these "folder" as "not yet ready" and started scanning the papers, but got stuck, when I found out, that I am limited to 255 entries in the comobobox whith which I intended to select the folder where the scan belongs to...
so if there ist no way to exeed the 255 limit of the combobox I can either print out a list of the folder-numbers and set the data in the box to - "not only list entries" - or "preselect" by the client-Number - or "preselect" between "not yet ready" and "done"
but in some - rare - cases it would be nice to see all "folders" in the combobox-selection :-)

[ranman256]

Add a textbox to type in a letter to filter the text box.
the after update event updates the combo source to further filter the contents.

[Minty]

A combo box isn't limited to 255 entries? Are you talking about the text display length?

If so why not cascade the combo's? select the customer, then have a second combo for the year?

[brigitteAT]

Add a textbox to type in a letter to filter the text box.
the after update event updates the combo source to further filter the contents.

Thank you ranman! I'll try that when I'll be looking for text next time (in this case I'm looking for the ID of the annual data-folder... and I am much better in making new queries than to change the properties in a combo-box ... took me hours to find out how to select the ID (of a person) from their surnames sorted in alphabetical order in a combobox and still see their ID in the table later on .... )

[Micron]

I'm thinking that "255 entries" means 255 characters, which is the max length of a short text field. I also believe that there is a 255 field/column limit, which points to a design problem if that's what this is about.

[brigitteAT]

A combo box isn't limited to 255 entries? Are you talking about the text display length?

If so why not cascade the combo's? select the customer, then have a second combo for the year?

Thank you MInty!
I think what you call "cascade" is, what I did, filter the client first an then select the year...
I just thought, that there might be a simple way - such as a change of "properties"? I don't know*) - to extend the number of 255 lines :-)
*)my F1-key always leads me to the german what they call "HELP" mostly without result...

[brigitteAT]

I'm thinking that "255 entries" means 255 characters, which is the max length of a short text field. I also believe that there is a 255 field/column limit, which points to a design problem if that's what this is about.

Thank you Micron!
what I really meant was limit of 255 lines that show up as possible selection in a combobox...
of course you are right, that more than 255 is no good for normal work, (and usually I do have a clear hierachy/relation, where this does not happen
1) Client/Objekt
2) Year/Projekt
and a table where I do the entries and select where they belong to (which only works if the year/project do already exist)
but at the moment - filing heaps of paper - I sometimes start to "create"/type a new "Project", then miss some information and let go for the moment ... and two days later don't remember if I had already made it or not, just for these cases it would have been nice to see all 800+ "projects" at once... but I did "solve" it for now by preselecting the Objekt, and the only "risk" I so take is, that I have "empty Projects" for some client in the end (if I started a Projekt with the wrong clientID first and start a new one 2 days later with the correct ClientID :-)) ... but don't worry, in a couple of months I can then start a query to delete all "empty Projects" at once....

I just never give up hope for "easy" solutions :-)

[Micron]

So this is about 255 list items in a combobox? If so, the only thing that comes to mind is the list item limit option. Perhaps yours is set to 255 but I've always thought it defaulted to 1,000. Perhaps look at Options>Current Database>Filter Lookup Options>Don't display lists when...
Somehow I doubt that is your issue as I take that option choice to mean "don't even display the list" rather than "limit it to x items".

To find out, I just did a test where a combo has a list of 1,238 items and it still displays when the option is set to 1,000, so now I don't know what that option is for. Maybe I'm on the wrong track because of "lines". My last paragraph here has 2 lines, not 2 items. AFAIK, a listbox or combo doesn't have lines. It has list items (or rows). HTH.

[brigitteAT]

So this is about 255 list items in a combobox? If so, the only thing that comes to mind is the list item limit option. Perhaps yours is set to 255 but I've always thought it defaulted to 1,000. Perhaps look at Options>Current Database>Filter Lookup Options>Don't display lists when...
Somehow I doubt that is your issue as I take that option choice to mean "don't even display the list" rather than "limit it to x items".

To find out, I just did a test where a combo has a list of 1,238 items and it still displays when the option is set to 1,000, so now I don't know what that option is for. Maybe I'm on the wrong track because of "lines". My last paragraph here has 2 lines, not 2 items. AFAIK, a listbox or combo doesn't have lines. It has list items (or rows). HTH.

Thank you Micron!
in the general options-setting I seem to have found this "field" which asks me where/when (at what number) the db shall stop showing the result ... this was automatically set at 1000 ... but it seems to have no influence on the 255 limit of "lines"/"results"/"entries" the combobox actually shows...

sorry, I'm completely confused with vocabulary
the german edition calls the numer of (horizontal) entries/results to be shown in the combobx "lines" this is limited to 255 and cannot be changed (and thus, even if the result of the underlying query is 800, then I only see 255 horizontal "lines" as result (in the number of "colums/Rows" I decided to be visible)

my actual combobox "filter" has 2 what I'd call "columns" or "rows" and 800 what I'd call "lines", but I'd gladly use the right words if I knew them in English!

PROJEKID Projektname
1 FIBU CL1 2000
2 FIBU CL2 2000
....
....
40 FIBU CL40 2000
41 FIBU CL1 2001
....
799 FIBU CL39 2020
800 FIBU CL40 2020

[Micron]

The difference in jargon between the languages can be surprising. I guess it's like when someone native to English reads a manual translated from Chinese. Sometimes it's laughable! Anyway, I have never heard of a 255 line/item/row limit in a combo or listbox, and as I mentioned, I tested and it works with at least 1238. What's unknown to me at this time is if this is something that just cropped up or it has always been an issue for you.

If you created a new db, imported a table with, say around 1 or 2 thousand records, created a new form with a new combo and made its rowsource SELECT myField FROM myTable will you get all of the records from that table field? I wonder if you have corruption in the form or control of the current db or perhaps the db itself. I searched yesterday and could not find anything about a list/row/line limit for this.

[Micron]

I found that the list (line) limit is 65,535 + 1 for header row (or something like that). There should be no issue with 800. You could try this, but it's really meant for where the list count is in the thousands or tens of thousands

http://allenbrowne.com/ser-32.html

If you do test with a new db and still have the problem, consider posting it here - or even your current db.

[brigitteAT]

The difference in jargon between the languages can be surprising. I guess it's like when someone native to English reads a manual translated from Chinese. Sometimes it's laughable! Anyway, I have never heard of a 255 line/item/row limit in a combo or listbox, and as I mentioned, I tested and it works with at least 1238. What's unknown to me at this time is if this is something that just cropped up or it has always been an issue for you.

If you created a new db, imported a table with, say around 1 or 2 thousand records, created a new form with a new combo and made its rowsource SELECT myField FROM myTable will you get all of the records from that table field? I wonder if you have corruption in the form or control of the current db or perhaps the db itself. I searched yesterday and could not find anything about a list/row/line limit for this.

the whole German "HELP" seems to be translated from Chinese and is completely inconsistent, telling me half of the time, it can't find the word I'm looking for (though I have it on the screen .....)

Zeilenbeschränkung.pdf

I'm working in another form at the moment, but printed you out exactly where the limit shows up ... the message says "the line-number-property must have a value between 1 and 255) it must not be empty and I cannot write 1238 in there for example

[Micron]

I finally figured out what your post is about because of that picture. It's not a row or line or list count limit - it's the visible rows property of the combo (ListRows). That means the maximum rows/lines/list items that can be displayed is 255. That is not the maximum number of possible rows/lines/list items that can be in the list. If your list exceeds the setting (default is 16) then your combo gets a scroll bar so that you can scroll through the list. Personally I would not want to see a list that was real high - certainly not 800 as it probably wouldn't even fit on the screen. If you're not seeing a scroll bar when the list exceeds the ListRow setting then you have another issue because I don't see an option to show or not show a scroll bar.

[brigitteAT]

I finally figured out what your post is about because of that picture. It's not a row or line or list count limit - it's the visible rows property of the combo (ListRows). That means the maximum rows/lines/list items that can be displayed is 255. That is not the maximum number of possible rows/lines/list items that can be in the list. If your list exceeds the setting (default is 16) then your combo gets a scroll bar so that you can scroll through the list. Personally I would not want to see a list that was real high - certainly not 800 as it probably wouldn't even fit on the screen. If you're not seeing a scroll bar when the list exceeds the ListRow setting then you have another issue because I don't see an option to show or not show a scroll bar.

Thank you!!!
so sorry to have bothered you with just a miserable German Translation ....
"Anzahl" means the number of... and for me it was clear that if I decide about
"Spaltenanzahl" 1 ... having just one "row/column" visible that
"Zeilenanzahl" (something between 1 and 255) limits me to 1-255 visible lines...
what does the English version say for "rows/Columns" and " Lines" ?

[Micron]

so sorry to have bothered you with just a miserable German Translation ....

Not at all. I learned something today. At my age, it will be gone in a couple of hours
Perhaps this image will help (I assume these properties are in the same order as yours). Note the default setting of 16 form list rows (ListRows) property:


EDIT

limits me to 1-255 visible lines...

yes, but if you look at your original post, it says 225 "entries". You might have known exactly what you meant but perhaps something got lost in the translation. A descriptive paragraph might be better next time, like
"when I click on the combo arrow the list drops down but I can only see at most, 255 lines". Just an idea...