Visual Basic for Applications Reference

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Can't perform requested operation (Error 17)

Specifics

An operation can't be carried out if it would invalidate the current state of the project. This error has the following cause and solution:

  • The requested operation would invalidate the current state of the project. For example, the error occurs if you use the References dialog box to add a reference to a new project or object library while a program is in break mode.

    Stop execution of the current code, and then retry the operation.

  • An attempt was made to programmatically modify currently running code. For example, your code may have tried to read code from a disk file into a currently running module.

    Although you can modify modules in the project while they aren't actually running, you can't make modifications to a running module. To make such changes, you must stop the module from running, make the additions or changes, and then restart execution.

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