dao cannot open any more databases

Are you trying to use the DAO under .NET?

I know that under VB6, there were issues, depending on the "cursortype".  If it was a server-side cursor, you had to read all the way to the end of the recordset before the cursor would actually close... so, you could try doing a MoveFirst then MoveLast just prior to doing your Close and then setting to Nothing.

But, under .NET, I wouldn't recommend using DAO.  Rather, you should be working with SQLCommand objects, Dataset objects and DataReader objects.

mdougan,
    I agree that dao shouldn't be used. However there are way too many places in the program to do quick conversion to the .NET way (ADO ?)
   The program already did the movefirst/movelast combo thing to force populate recordset... I am not sure I understand the implication of the different "cursortype" when openrecordset. Could you give a quick explanation as to which one can be more "reliably" closed afterwards?
   T

Well, it is hard to remember which of my old programs uses DAO and which uses ADO... most people made the switch many years ago.  Here is one routine that I think uses DAO.  Our database was SQL Server, and so, we wrote all of our SQL in Stored Procedures, so, to execute a Stored Procedure, you create a QueryDef object, and you do a DB_SQLPASSTHROUGH call, which tells DAO not to try to interpret the Query, but rather just pass it along to SQL Server to worry about.

In the OpenRecordset statement, the dbOpenSnapshot  flag specifies the "CursorType".  This type of cursor will be a readonly cursor, as it is just a snapshot of the data... not to be used for updating.  Not sure what the "CursorLocation" for this would be, but would guess something like  dbUseClient, meaning that it should bring all the results back to the client right-away.  The other option is dbUseServer which can be more efficient, in that it only brings back some of the data to the client right-away, and then it will bring down the rest as you movenext through the recordset.

We opened our database at the beginning of the program, and kept it open the whole time, until the end of the program.  Whenever we created the QueryDef object, we associated it with the database by using our database variable db.... so, for example

Dim lqd as QueryDef
lqd = db.CreateQueryDef(......

Are you opening and closing your database after each query?  Or maybe you are opening a connection to the db before each query, and then not closing the db object when done?

Dim SAVE As String
Dim lrs As Recordset
Dim lqd As QueryDef
Dim Parms As Variant
Dim sErrors As String
Dim lError As Variant

    On Error GoTo FillCharactersErr
   
    SAVE = cboCharacter.Text
   
    cboCharacter.Clear
    cboCharacter.AddItem "[None]"
    cboCharacter.ItemData(cboCharacter.NewIndex) = 0
    Parms = Array(gUserShow, Mode)
    ' this is a function we wrote that does a CreateQueryDef statement
    PrepareQuery lqd, "SPC_SEL_CHARACTER_BY_SHOW", Parms

    Set lrs = lqd.OpenRecordset(dbOpenSnapshot, DB_SQLPASSTHROUGH)

    If lrs.RecordCount <> 0 Then
        lrs.MoveLast
        lrs.MoveFirst
        While Not lrs.EOF
            cboCharacter.AddItem ValidString(lrs("CHARACTERNAME"))
            cboCharacter.ItemData(cboCharacter.NewIndex) = ValidNum(lrs("CHARACTERCODE"))
            lrs.MoveNext
        Wend
    End If
   
    cboCharacter.Text = SAVE
   
    lrs.Close
    lqd.Close
   

Hi TongZ

No worries, you can feel free to delete the question and ask that your points be refunded.  Glad you found your solution!

I always added the code to close the recordsets just before the return, because you could logically see what recordsets would be open at that time.  Some people will code a label at the bottom of the routine and GoTo it in all cases, and the close statements would follow that label, but then others don't like using GoTos.

Cheers!