What does HRESULT 0x80040E01 (DB_E_ROWLIMITEXCEEDED) mean?

DB_E_ROWLIMITEXCEEDED

Meaning

Windows documents DB_E_ROWLIMITEXCEEDED as “Row could not be inserted into the rowset without exceeding provider's maximum number of active rows”. Here, IRowsetChange inserts a row but the provider would exceed its maximum number of active rows.

Relevant OLE DB contract

This result must be interpreted against this contract: OLE DB rowsets own HROW values, fetch position, granted properties and visibility rules; row handles, bookmarks, update state and navigation capabilities remain valid only under the lifetime and generation that produced them.

Start with the current rowset instance, its granted properties and the exact row or position token used by the consumer when investigating this result.

Evidence to collect before changing the system

• Evidence 1: the number of outstanding HROW values and their reference counts.
• Evidence 2: DBPROP_MAXOPENROWS or equivalent provider capability information.
• Evidence 3: the count of pending inserted rows and whether update mode is immediate or deferred.

Specific conditions that produce it

• Cause 1: the consumer has retained too many HROW references.
• Cause 2: delayed-update inserts remain pending and count toward the provider limit.
• Cause 3: the provider exposes a low maximum-open-row capability for this rowset.

Retry and recovery policy

Retry rule: retry after releasing rows or completing pending changes; a tight insert loop without reducing active-row pressure will fail again.

Corrective actions

• Action 1: release row handles as soon as their data is no longer needed.
• Action 2: commit or undo delayed changes in bounded batches.
• Action 3: reduce fetch and insert batch sizes to stay inside the provider limit.

Practical incident

An importer keeps every inserted HROW until the end of a large transaction and reaches the provider cap; releasing each handle after staging the row prevents it.

Difference from related HRESULT values

DB_E_ROWSNOTRELEASED requires releasing rows before another fetch, whereas it reports that an insertion would exceed the provider's active-row ceiling.

Official Microsoft references

• Microsoft: IRowset
• Microsoft: fetching rows
• Microsoft: OLE DB rowsets