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

>Run a sample select on the existing data that your customers use, if their
max LEN on the address field is 20 characters expand that by a few more as
to give a tolerance.

Hey, at least you are giving a valid method of determining and a semi valid
reason for using a specific size.

Of course it is unclear how you are going to determine that 53 is the
biggest you ever got if you limit the size to 20 up front.

<grin>

>but limiting the amount of space will improve your storage needs.

In Access that simply isn't so.

>Not limiting fields is just plain careless!

Says you.  Limiting text fields without a valid business reason is just
silly (and arrogant as well). (says me)

I keep asking (and nobody is responding) - whose data is it?  Whose database
is it.  Who are YOU to TELL the client that 53 characters is all they need?

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Francisco H
Tapia
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 7:28 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various


DWUTKA at marlow.com wrote On 5/25/2004 3:32 PM:

>255 characters is a necessary limit.
>
>
How?

>20 characters for an address field is an arbitrary limit.  An assumption is
>made that no more then 20 characters is going to be used for that field.
It
>is not a necessary limit.  You may set a textbox to a particular size, but
>the textbox can be changed with little fuss.
>
>
>
Storage, albeit nowadays cheap, is still and should continue to be a
consideration for the lenght of a field.  A 20 Character address may be
too small especially when I've ran len selects to grab the maximum size
of an address field and have come up with: 53.  In Sql Server I can make
my varchar field up to 8000 characters for this field but does it really
make sense?, I can join and index it as well, but does it make sense to
do so?

Both of you should heed that just because you can doesn't mean you
"should".  Run a sample select on the existing data that your customers
use, if their max LEN on the address field is 20 characters expand that
by a few more as to give a tolarnce.  YOU WILL NEVER get it 100% perfect
as far as lenghts are concerned. but limiting the amount of space will
improve your storage needs.

Lastly, your Gas tank analogy is all wrong, Car makers put out various
sizes of tanks for each car.  By your logic they'd be strapping your
Ford Festiva w/ a Ford Expedition tank.

<snip>

>They'll be driving along, cruising down the
>data entry highway, then they'll realize they need to take a detour.
Detour
>is taken, and kaput, their system runs out of gas, so they have to call the
>tow-truck developer to come give them more gas to get home.  If they go on
>longer trips then what a normal car can hold, they need to buy a bigger gas
>tank (or compress the data, and get a more efficient car).  You want to
>provide your users with a full tank.  Filling the trunk with extra gas
cans,
>having a tanker drive beside them, or converting them to nuclear power is
>going to be overkill, unless they want to run forever without refueling.
>But that would be in the clients specs, wouldn't it?  If you give the users
>a full tank, and the client expects them to only go 100 miles, if their
>going off course to see their grandmother, or making trips to a strip club,
>or whatever, that is the Clients responsibility to monitor their users, not
>yours.
>
>
COMPUTER's are bound by limits.  There is only so much RAM, HDD, and
SWAP space.  When the database grows beyond it's hdd space it must be
transplanted to a bigger server, and eventually upsized to a bigger
database (SQL Server for instance).

it's all limits.  If you really want to provide the most amount of space
for your end users so they don't get limited, then why are you not
working with mySQL or MS SQL databases so you CAN provide up to 8000
characters per field.  HECK you never know they may want to write up the
instructions on how to get to the location rather than the actual ADDRESS!

Not limiting fields is just plain careless!