Subject: Quoting issue from ODBC

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2023 18:10:44 -0600

Front end: Access 365
Back end: Postgres 9.4
(I know, we are in the process of upgrading)

I'm getting some cases where the SQL sent from MS-Access is failing.
Looking at the postgres log shows that the field names and table names are
not being quoted properly.
It has been my experience that Access usually does a better job at
converting the queries than I would have expected, but not in this instance.

For example

Access: connection.Execute "UPDATE [" & strTable & "] SET [" & strTable &
"].[InsertFlag] = Null" _
    & " WHERE ((([" & strTable & "].[InsertFlag])=" & lngCurrUID & "));", ,
adCmdText Or adExecuteNoRecords
Note that InsertFlag is bracketed the same way in both instances.

PSQL: UPDATE "public"."Orders" SET InsertFlag=NULL  WHERE ("InsertFlag" =
166 )
Note that InsertFlag is quoted once but not the other time.
Of course this gives the error: column "insertflag" of relation "Orders"
does not exist at character 35.

Looks like I have about 16 unique instances of statements not being quoted
correctly resulting in over 500 errors in the log for today.

Any suggestions on where to look?

Thanks,
Brad.

---

From: Adrian Klaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2023 16:19:08 -0800

On 2/7/23 16:10, Brad White wrote:
> Looking at the postgres log shows that the field names and table names 
> are not being quoted properly.
> Access: connection.Execute "UPDATE [" & strTable & "] SET [" & strTable 
> & "].[InsertFlag] = Null" _
>      & " WHERE ((([" & strTable & "].[InsertFlag])=" & lngCurrUID & 
> "));", , adCmdText Or adExecuteNoRecords
> PSQL: UPDATE "public"."Orders" SET InsertFlag=NULL  WHERE ("InsertFlag" 
> = 166 )
> Looks like I have about 16 unique instances of statements not being 
> quoted correctly resulting in over 500 errors in the log for today.

Where these preexisting queries or where they created today?

If preexisting have there been any changes to the software stack since 
yesterday?

If new how where the queries generated?

-- 
Adrian Klaver
[email-masked]

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2023 18:19:56 -0600

Front end: Access 365
Back end: Postgres 9.4

For example, this is the literal code in VBA

No ORM involved.

Thanks,
Brad.

---

From: "David G. Johnston" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2023 17:23:49 -0700

On Tue, Feb 7, 2023 at 5:20 PM Brad White <[email-masked]> wrote:

>     & " WHERE ((([" & strTable & "].[InsertFlag])=" & lngCurrUID & "));",
> , adCmdText Or adExecuteNoRecords
Either VBA is doing some query munging or that concatenated string isn't
the one that is producing the error.  Which suggests that maybe you have a
string somewhere that is not written correctly that need to be fixed so it
doesn't produce this error.

David J.

---

From: Rob Sargent <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2023 17:32:52 -0700

On 2/7/23 17:23, David G. Johnston wrote:
>     Access: connection.Execute "UPDATE [" & strTable & "] SET [" &
>     strTable & "].[InsertFlag] = Null" _
>     PSQL: UPDATE "public"."Orders" SET InsertFlag=NULL  WHERE
>     ("InsertFlag" = 166 )
>     Of course this gives the error: column "insertflag" of relation
>     "Orders" does not exist at character 35.
>
>
> Either VBA is doing some query munging or that concatenated string 
> isn't the one that is producing the error.  Which suggests that maybe 
> you have a string somewhere that is not written correctly that need to 
> be fixed so it doesn't produce this error.
>
> David J.
>
Should the SET clause have a table alias at all?  I get an error with

    update foo set foo.id = something;

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2023 22:20:58 -0600

On 2/7/2023 6:19 PM, Adrian Klaver wrote:
>> Looking at the postgres log shows that the field names and table 
>> names are not being quoted properly.

These queries are decades old but I don't view this log file very often, 
so I don't know how long.

I'll review when I get back on site Thursday and see if I can find any 
users that are not getting the error or when it started.

-- 
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are, and solve those.
On-call IT Management for small companies and non-profits.
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[email-masked]
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---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2023 16:43:34 -0600

On Tue, Feb 7, 2023 at 10:20 PM Brad White <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Back in the office today and I note that all of the fields that are
getting the issue are the target field in an UPDATE statement.
All the other tables and field names are quoted correctly.

I suspect an ODBC driver bug.  Is there a better place to report those?

Driver: PostgreSQL Unicode
Filename: PSQLODBC35W.DLL
Version: 13.02.00
ReleaseDate: 9/22/2021

On the other hand, the app updates things all the time. Only about 12 of
the update statements are ending up in the log. Still looking for the
common denominator in how those statements are called.

ERROR:  column "*commitrep*" of relation "Order Items" does not exist at
character 35
STATEMENT:  UPDATE "public"."Order Items" SET *CommitRep*='jdoe'  WHERE
(("OrderFID" = 557837 ) AND ("*CommitRep*" IS NULL ) )

Here is the original query. You can see that  [CommitRep] is written the
same way both times in the query, but in the final quoted correctly once
and incorrectly once.
    RunADO "CreditRepWithCommit()", "UPDATE [Order Items] SET *[CommitRep]*
= '" & UID & "'" _
        & " WHERE [OrderFID] = " & OrderFID & " AND * [CommitRep]* IS NULL;"

A few other samples from the log. Always just the target field of the
UPDATE that is not quoted.

ERROR:  column "*availableserialcount*" of relation "Serial Pools" does not
exist at character 36
STATEMENT:  UPDATE "public"."Serial Pools" SET *AvailableSerialCount*=143
 WHERE ("ID" = 134 )

ERROR:  column "*serialnum*" of relation "Order Items" does not exist at
character 35
STATEMENT:  UPDATE "public"."Order Items" SET *SerialNum*='205757'
,LastSerCaptureTypeID=2  WHERE ("ID" = 1891128 )

ERROR:  column "*issuedate*" of relation "Order Items" does not exist at
character 35
STATEMENT:  UPDATE "public"."Order Items" SET *IssueDate*='2023-02-09
14:28:09'::timestamp ,*IssueRep*=' jdoe  '  WHERE ("ID" = 1891128 )

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2023 16:46:18 -0600

Going back to early 2020, I don't have any logs that don't have these
errors, so it is not a recent change.

I don't yet see anything that is user specific.

Brad.

---

From: Adrian Klaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2023 15:10:04 -0800

On 2/9/23 14:43, Brad White wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2023 at 10:20 PM Brad White <[email-masked] 
> <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
> 
>>>     It has been my experience that Access usually does a better job
>>>     at converting the queries than I would have expected, but not in
>>>     this instance.
>>>
>>>     For example
>>>
>>>          & " WHERE ((([" & strTable & "].[InsertFlag])=" & lngCurrUID
>>>     & "));", , adCmdText Or adExecuteNoRecords
>>>     Looks like I have about 16 unique instances of statements not
>>>     being quoted correctly resulting in over 500 errors in the log
>>>     for today.
>>
>     These queries are decades old but I don't view this log file very
>     often, so I don't know how long.
> 
>     I'll review when I get back on site Thursday and see if I can find
>     any users that are not getting the error or when it started.
> 
>>
>>>

https://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-odbc/

> common denominator in how those statements are called.

So how the successful UPDATE's called?

Are the successful UPDATES's on the same tables and columns?

 From your subsequent post:

"Going back to early 2020, I don't have any logs that don't have these 
errors, so it is not a recent change."

Are these UPDATE's actually necessary?

In other words has nobody noticed a problem with the data over that time 
frame?

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2023 18:27:20 -0600

> So how the successful UPDATE's called?
I'm still trying to track down all the statements. Because of the
translation between the two database systems, I can't just search on a
simple string.

> Are the successful UPDATES's on the same tables and columns?
This is the only routine that updates the InsertFlag column. All the order
tables have that flag.

> Are these UPDATE's actually necessary?
This system is critical to the company, but has a reputation of being
unreliable. I suspect this may be one cause.

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2023 11:11:05 -0600

Front end: Access 365
Back end: Postgres 9.4
(I know, we are in the process of upgrading)
ODBC Driver: PostgreSQL Unicode v13.02, PSQLODBC35W, 9/22/2021

Only on UPDATE statements.

For example

Access: connection.Execute "UPDATE [" & strTable & "] SET [" & strTable & "]
*.[InsertFlag]* = Null" _
    & " WHERE ((([" & strTable & "].*[InsertFlag]*)=" & lngCurrUID & "));",
, adCmdText Or adExecuteNoRecords
Note that InsertFlag is bracketed the same way in both instances.

PSQL log: UPDATE "public"."Orders" SET *InsertFlag*=NULL  WHERE (
*"InsertFlag"* = 166 )
Note that InsertFlag is quoted once but not the other time.
Of course this gives the error: column "insertflag" of relation "Orders"
does not exist at character 35.

This is not a new issue. The logs have these errors stretching back months.

Thanks,
Brad.

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2023 11:34:30 -0600

Front end: Access 365
Back end: Postgres 9.4

For example

Thanks,
Brad.

---

From: Brad White <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:58:48 -0600

frame?

I don't know what to make of it.
I had the same question you did.

I now have proof that these hundreds of errors are not an issue.
The postgres logs in pg_log clearly show an error, but the errors never
show up in the Access log.
That means that Access didn't get an error back.
Further, I have evidence that the values are actually getting updated.
The financial balances are all correct.
Issues that were closed are all closed, etc.
Even though the Access log says the statement was only run once and
Postgres says ERROR, I see no other evidence of it.
I can't fathom how that can happen.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On the other hand, there are some real errors in the log. I'll put that in
another post.

Brad

---

From: Adrian Klaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:35:48 -0800

On 2/14/23 14:58, Brad White wrote:
>  > In other words has nobody noticed a problem with the data over that 
> time frame?
> 

Then either:

1) They are not coming from Access.

2) Or indirectly from Access, which kicks off some other code that is 
not logged.

In either case they seem to be surplus to requirements. In other words 
cruft that is not actually relevant to the application.

> On the other hand, there are some real errors in the log. I'll put that 
> in another post.
> 
> Brad