BUG: Attributes Property of ADOX Columns Collection May Cause Append Method to Fail (272001)

SYMPTOMS

Attempting to set the Attributes property of a Microsoft ActiveX Data Object (ADOX) Column object to anything other than 0 may cause the Append method of the Tables collection to fail with the following error message:

Run-time error '3265':
Item cannot be found in the collection corresponding to the requested name or ordinal.

CAUSE

This is caused by a bug in the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects Extensions for Data Definition Language (DDL) and Security, which prevents the setting of the Attributes property of a Column to anything but 0 (where a value of 0 means neither adColFixed nor adColNullable, the two possible values for this property) when other properties of the Column object are also set.

MORE INFORMATION

The error messages occurs only when you attempt to set one or more properties on a Column object and then also try to set the Attributes property to either adColFixed (1) or adColNullable (2).

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Create a Standard EXE project in Microsoft Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
Set a Project reference to each of the following:
- Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.x for DDL and Security
- Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.x Library

Paste the following code into the default Load method of the form:

  Dim conn As New ADODB.Connection
  Dim cat As New ADOX.Catalog
  Dim tbl As New ADOX.Table
  Dim col As String
   
  'The following two lines make a connection to an Access database.
  'Please change the .mdb path as needed. 
  conn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
              "data source=c:\db1.mdb;user id=admin;password=;"
  conn.Open
  cat.ActiveConnection = conn
  Set tbl.ParentCatalog = cat

  tbl.Name = "ADOXTab"
  col = "Col1"
  tbl.Columns.Append col, adInteger

  tbl.Columns(col).Attributes = adColNullable Or adColFixed
  'Comment out the preceding line and uncomment the next line to make
  'the Append method work.
  'tbl.Columns(col).Attributes = 0

  tbl.Columns(col).Properties("Default") = 10
  cat.Tables.Append tbl

REFERENCES

For additional information on the limitations of ADOX, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

198534 ADOX Readme File Included with ADO 2.1 Components

271483 Design features of ADOX