[AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various

John W. Colby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue May 25 10:54:58 CDT 2004


Scott, you apparently have the benefit of unlimited freedom in your
database, sitting on site all day just waiting for your users to ask you to
expand a field.  I have NO client closer than 45 miles from my office.  Some
are in other states.  Of course I'll just jump on a plane and go do that.
Or walk the client through doing it.  In any case, boot all the users while
I do it.  And of course they can't enter the data until I do.  Hmmmm....
sounds like a curious definition of customer service.  Why do I care if they
enter 50 characters in the address2 field?  If that is what the address is,
then they need to be able to enter that.  The chance that it will be > 255
is so small that it isn't worth discussing so why are discussing it?  The
chances that it will be bigger than 25 are pretty good.

My job is to design a database that requires as little intervention on my
part as they can get away with.  I charge them by the hour to increase the
size of the field.

Come to think of it, I suppose I should just start with all fields at 10
characters and let the money pour in as I go back time and again to
"increase the field size".  Sounds rather silly when stated that way doesn't
it?

And what is the benefit?  What have you gained? (other than LOTS of extra
money increasing field sizes)

The person also mentioned that if you are allowing your users to directly
enter two digit state codes you have bigger problems than field lengths.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Scott Marcus
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 7:45 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various


< And I do use a lot of memo fields (with all the inherent problems) when I
suspect that more than 255 will be needed.

Which is fine. How do you know when it will be greater than 255? Some limit
must be determined, otherwise we should just set all the fields to memo,
because in the future someone may want to make a change.

Someone else mentioned not limiting fields to 2 letters for state
abbreviations. Why not? When the abbreviations jump to 3 letters, I'll make
the field bigger. That's just part of my job.

Scott Marcus
TSS Technologies, Inc.
marcus at tsstech.com
(513) 772-7000

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]  On Behalf Of John W. Colby
Sent:	Monday, May 24, 2004 9:05 PM
To:	Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject:	RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various

And I do use a lot of memo fields (with all the inherent problems) when I
suspect that more than 255 will be needed.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Scott Marcus
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 2:10 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various


I know that I jumping in the middle but...

By setting the field to 255 aren't you still imposing a limit. Why not set
it to memo to be safe? (playing devils advocate) I know there are reasons
not to set to memo and I'm not suggesting you do so. I'm just pointing out
that maybe you setting it to 255 is going to get you burned in another way
down the road. Don't ask me what other way because your reasoning for
setting it to 255 is for things unforeseen. I understand where you are
coming from. Like Brett I'm just surprised hearing that you do set it to
255.

Not arguing (maybe I'll start setting mine to 255), just thinking of the
flip side.

Scott Marcus
TSS Technologies, Inc.
marcus at tsstech.com
(513) 772-7000


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