Friday, November 19, 2021
Solution to Access error 2110 for setFocus
In Access forms, I often use a dummy text field called "txtFocusDummy" to which I set the focus when I want to de-select a field - which might be because I don't want the cursor to stay on the field (eg after selecting from a list) or because I want a quick way of committing an updated field value to the underlying table.
But I kept hitting error 2110, which said:
Run-time error '2110'
[Name of Application] can't move the focus to the control txtFocusDummy
and offered the choice of End and Debug.
If I chose Debug then, with the VBA Editor cisible, pressed F8 to continue, then all proceeded OK. So I knew it wasn't a problem with it being Enabled or Visible, or the right sort of field. So I reckoned that it had to be down to a timing issue - I was asking Access to move to a new field before it was ready to do so.
So, I replaced the setfocus instruction with a subroutine:
Public Sub fd()
'moves focus to dummy field txtFocusDummy (among other things, ensures that field value is saved to underlying table)
tryAgain:
On Error GoTo wait_a_while
txtFocusDummy.SetFocus
Exit Sub
wait_a_while:
If True Then
sSleep 10 '10 millseconds seems to be long enough!
GoTo tryAgain
Else
If MsgBox("Sorry - Access needs a moment's rest to catch up. Please press OK to proceed") Then
GoTo tryAgain
End If
End If
End Sub
And then (important step) in the VBA screen, I took Tools and Options, then the General tab and chose "Break on Unhandled Errors".
As you will see in the code, I have added the option to throw up a message box so that if I wish, I can see when the 2110 error is happening. But as set, the subroutine simply adds a 10 millisecond delay, which on my PC is enough to solve the problem.
The sSleep routine isn't mine, but here it is:
Private Declare Sub sapiSleep Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "Sleep" _
(ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
Public Sub sSleep(lngMilliSec As Long)
If lngMilliSec > 0 Then
Call sapiSleep(lngMilliSec)
End If
End Sub
Hope this helps someone else (or that I find this myself when I hit the same problem again in a few years' time and have forgotten the answer).