Cannot preview SQL server tables with TIMESTAMP fields in ArcGIS

Description

The tables are listed under the OLE DB connection object in the ArcMap TOC but the data cannot be previewed.

Cause

It is not possible to preview SQL Server tables which contain fields defined as TIMESTAMP. This is due to a data type conversion error when using either the Microsoft OLE DB provider for SQL Server or the Microsoft OLE DB provider for ODBC drivers (and an ODBC DSN) to make the connection to the database.

Solution or Workaround

• If appropriate, re-define the fields in the database table as data type DATETIME instead of TIMESTAMP.
• Define a view of the table excluding the fields defined as data type TIMESTAMP.