Forum Discussion
ODBC Error: [netsuite][odbc 64bit driver]error parsing connect string at offset 65
Thanks for sharing the fix, this is a great find for others hitting the same wall. To add a bit of context on why it happens: ODBC connection strings use certain characters (semicolons, curly braces, equals signs, etc.) as field delimiters. If a password happens to contain one of these "special" characters, the driver misparses the connect string at that offset instead of treating it as part of the password value, which produces exactly the generic parsing error you saw.
A couple of extra tips for anyone else running into this:
- If you can't change the password, some ODBC drivers support wrapping the value in braces, e.g. PWD={my;pass=word}, to escape delimiter characters.
- Storing the password in Windows Credential Manager / a gateway credential (rather than embedding it directly in the connection string) avoids the parsing issue entirely, since the driver receives it out of band.
- When testing new ODBC credentials, it's worth trying a simple alphanumeric password first to confirm the driver/connector setup itself is correct before troubleshooting further.