Gustav Brock
gustav at cactus.dk
Wed May 26 07:20:55 CDT 2004
Hi John >> As some examples, ISO country codes are either two or three chars, >> BIC(SWIFT) codes are 8 or 11 chars, and IBAN codes are, by definition, >> max. 34 chars - anything above these numbers would represent an error and >> would make no sense to store. > If you are not using a lookup table for this then you have issues. I will > hand you this one I suppose, so lookup tables may in certain circumstances > be limited. We are assuming here that we suspect the user will be writing > books in the country code fields if we don't get out the handcuffs? Oh please don't hand it to me. Someone asked for a reason to limit text length in text fields; this is one. >> Here, no city name is longer than 20 chars and no street name is longer >> than 34 chars. > Today. And tomorrow too. If street names were longer than that they would cause overflow in many systems and, indeed, not be printable on most address labels, thus the name would be shortened for any practical purpose. Someone asked for a reason to limit text length in text fields; this is one more. >> Thus 50 is a reasonable limit for domestic address lines which, by the way, >> is also what Access's table designer suggests. > Do I look impressed with what Access table designer suggests? It doesn't suggest much more than some default zeroes and so. And this one which smells of common sense - nothing more, nothing less. /gustav >> I keep asking (and nobody is responding) - whose data is it? Whose database >> is it. > In most cases, the client's. >> Who are YOU to TELL the client that 53 characters is all they need? > I'm the expert. Quite often the client doesn't know what he/she needs. > If there would be a good reason to limit a text field to 53 chars, I > would tell or simply apply it. > As some examples, ISO country codes are either two or three chars, BIC > (SWIFT) codes are 8 or 11 chars, and IBAN codes are, by definition, > max. 34 chars - anything above these numbers would represent an error > and would make no sense to store. > Here, no city name is longer than 20 chars and no street name is > longer than 34 chars. Thus 50 is a reasonable limit for domestic > address lines which, by the way, is also what Access's table designer > suggests.