FAQ

Frequently asked questions for self help.

Please take a quick look at common questions (and answers) in the default list. If you can't find what you're looking for, start off by selecting your Ability Office version and then narrow it down by entering search text and/or category.

Search for

Select category

Select software version

Knowledge base article 71

"Syntax error in query" in Database

This message can appear when sorting or filtering a table or creating a query and is caused by invalid table or field names.

The four most common problems when creating field and table names are:

names containing spaces
names with trailing spaces
names containing hyphens (or minus signs)
names conflicting with in-built function names

To change a table name, make sure the table is closed and go to the "database manager" screen. Click once on the table and then click again to activate the rename box. Delete spaces or hyphens (or change to to underscores)

To change a field name, open the table and select Format/Table. In the format table dialog, edit the names so there are no spaces or hyphens. These rules do not apply to the field captions.