Result Sets Are Not Active Error

Result Sets Are Not Active Error

Question:
My SQLWindows app, which has been deployed for several months now, has started giving error 163 (“Result sets are not active”) messages. Is this caused by a bug somewhere in the app, or something environmental?

Answer:
Centura provides native connectivity routers (and ODBC access) to all popular RDBMS brands like Oracle, Sybase, SQLServer, Informix, DB/2, etc. One of the features provided by those routers is “front end result sets” (FERS). Every time data is read from the backend, a copy of the data is written to the PC’s disk. This enables backward scrolling capability, a feature that is normally missing in the backend. SQLBase, by the way, supports this as a native feature (by formulating a scrollable result set on the backend).

FERS enables the following function calls to be made from the app:

– SqlFetchNext
– SqlFetchRow
– SqlGetResultSetCount
The FERS files are written to the TEMP directory on the PC (usually set to c:windows emp in your AUTOEXEC.BAT). These files are named as FRSn, where n is an integer. The router takes care of purging these files as soon as they are not required anymore.

There are certain instances, however, when these files may linger “orphaned” — typically under abnormal termination conditions (affectionately known as “GPF” in Windows parlance). Consequently, there may come a time when the TEMP directly could have hundreds of these FERS files. Under some circumstances, the router could have trouble creating a new file in the same directory — even DOS has a limit to the number of files that can be created in a directory. Or the disk itself may run out of space. This is when you start noticing error 163 — the router is informing you that it could not create a result set file for you.

The solution is simple: every time you boot your PC, clean up your TEMP directory. Better still, put the cleanup into your AUTOEXEC.BAT (echo Y | del c:windows emp).

On a more strategic note though, most of your application could do without using FERS altogether! You see, when you populate a listbox, you don’t need this feature. And a table window can contain up to 32K rows anyway, which should be more than sufficient in most cases. So, the trick is to use FERS with DISCRETION. This feature can be turned off globally by the following code:

On SAM_AppStartup      Set SqlResultSet = FALSE

FERS can also be set on a per cursor basis:

If SqlConnect ( hSql)      Call SqlSetResultSet ( hSql, FALSE ) 

For complete information on these functions, check your on-line help.

Share the Post:
Heading photo, Metadata.

What is Metadata?

What is metadata? Well, It’s an odd concept to wrap your head around. Metadata is essentially the secondary layer of data that tracks details about the “regular” data. The regular

XDR solutions

The Benefits of Using XDR Solutions

Cybercriminals constantly adapt their strategies, developing newer, more powerful, and intelligent ways to attack your network. Since security professionals must innovate as well, more conventional endpoint detection solutions have evolved

AI is revolutionizing fraud detection

How AI is Revolutionizing Fraud Detection

Artificial intelligence – commonly known as AI – means a form of technology with multiple uses. As a result, it has become extremely valuable to a number of businesses across

AI innovation

Companies Leading AI Innovation in 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been transforming industries and revolutionizing business operations. AI’s potential to enhance efficiency and productivity has become crucial to many businesses. As we move into 2023, several

data fivetran pricing

Fivetran Pricing Explained

One of the biggest trends of the 21st century is the massive surge in analytics. Analytics is the process of utilizing data to drive future decision-making. With so much of

kubernetes logging

Kubernetes Logging: What You Need to Know

Kubernetes from Google is one of the most popular open-source and free container management solutions made to make managing and deploying applications easier. It has a solid architecture that makes