PRB: Setting the Sort Property of an ADO Recordset Object Causes Run-Time Error Message 3251 (253248)

SYMPTOMS

Setting the Sort property of an ADO Recordset object whose CursorLocation property has not been explicitly set or has been set to adUseServer, causes the following error message to appear:

Runtime error '3251': The operation requested by the application is not supported by the Provider

Or, under MDAC 2.6 or later, the following message will appear:

Runtime error '3251': Current provider does not support the necessary interfaces for sorting or filtering.

RESOLUTION

The ADO Client Cursor Engine does support the Sort method. Set the CursorLocation property of the ADO recordset object to adUseClient before opening it.

-or-

If the OLEDB provider supports a query language, such as SQL, you can request the records in a sorted order. For example, the Microsoft Jet and Microsoft SQL Server OLEDB providers both support the SQL ORDER BY clause. If you want to re-sort the data, you have to either re-select it or use a client-side cursor.

MORE INFORMATION

The default setting for the CursorLocation property of an ADO Recordset object when not specified explicitly is adUseServer. This setting uses a data provider or driver-supplied cursor to create the recordset.

Setting the CursorLocation property of the ADO recordset to adUseClient uses a client-side cursor supplied by the local cursor library to create and populate the recordset. The ADO Client Cursor Engine supports the Sort method and can be used if the OLDEB provider does not.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

The following example uses the SQL Server 7.0 pubs database. The problem can also be reproduced using the Microsoft Jet OLEDB Provider and an Access database.

Open a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic 5.0 or 6.0. Form1 is created by default.
On the Project menu, click References. Add a reference to the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects Library.
Add a Command button (Command1) to the default form and change the Caption property to Sort Records.

Add the following code to the form:

Option Explicit

Dim cn As ADODB.Connection
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset

Private Sub Form_Load()
  Set cn = New ADODB.Connection
  cn.Open "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Data Source=MyServer;Initial   Catalog=pubs;User ID=<user name>"
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
  Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
'  rs.CursorLocation = adUseClient
  rs.open "Select * from Authors", cn, adOpenKeyset, adLockReadOnly, adCmdText
  rs.Sort = "au_lname desc"
  Do While Not rs.EOF
    Debug.Print rs!au_lname
    rs.MoveNext
  Loop
  rs.Close
End Sub

Note You must adjust the connect string to point to a valid data source. Make sure that the User ID has the appropriate permissions to perform this operation on the database.

Run the project and click the Command button. Note that you see the error shown in the "Symptoms" section of this article.
Stop the project and uncomment the following line:
```
'  rs.CursorLocation = adUseClient
					
```
Run the project again. Note that it completes successfully, and that the records print in descending order on au_lname.