John W. Colby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Wed May 26 06:43:26 CDT 2004
Scott, There are no doubt databases where this is an issue but NOT in an access database for crying out loud. The max size it can EVER be is 2 GBytes. Do you know ANY computer out there that doesn't have 2Gbytes free? ANY? Your MOM'S old Pentium 133 had 5g hard drives. Assuming that this is going into a company, $1000 will buy a BRAND NEW computer, with 120gb RAID1 (ENOUGH FOR 40 ACCESS DATABASES!!!!!!!!!) with a UPS to sit in the server room with nothing but the ACCESS db. I have been doing Access databases for 10 years now. I have always just set the size to 255. I have tables with DOZENS of text fields of 255 characters. I DO NOT SEE PROBLEMS WRITING THE DATA. I do not see problems with the database filling up because users are writing books in the address fields. If there were ANY validity to your "issue" I would at least see it once or twice in 10 years, don't you think? Perhaps you are not correctly normalizing your databases, using lookup tables, with autonumber PKs for the lookup lists etc? Allowing users to write whatever they want in text fields when they should be using combos and check boxes to enter correct data. That would explain how you could have issues that I am not seeing. TEN YEARS, DOZENS OF DBS, ALL USING 255 BYTE FIELDS, NO ISSUES. My users aren't filling every 256 byte field to the last byte. They aren't filling ANY fields to the last byte. They are entering what you would expect to enter, names, addresses etc. TEN YEARS, DOZENS OF DBS, ALL USING 255 BYTE FIELDS, NO ISSUES. This is absolutely a NON ISSUE that you are trying to make an issue because you have no valid issue. TEN YEARS, DOZENS OF DBS, ALL USING 255 BYTE FIELDS, NO ISSUES. Harp all you want, it is just harping. By the way, did I mention... TEN YEARS, DOZENS OF DBS, ALL USING 255 BYTE FIELDS, NO ISSUES. Now, how many storage / length problems have YOU encountered? 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: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 7:17 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various Francisco, What you have said is exactly why I keep harping on the size issue. It isn't that the field can hold 255 characters, to me that is arbitrary. Well said... 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 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! -- -Francisco -- _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com