DWUTKA at marlow.com
DWUTKA at marlow.com
Wed May 26 16:37:21 CDT 2004
LOL. Added that comment to see if people were actually reading it. You apparently did.....or your spam software picked it up! LOL. Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John W. Colby Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 8:01 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various Visit a strip club? I think we can safely close this thread with the observation that we have the "law enforcement" developers who want to protect their users from themselves, and the "assume their adults and let their boss worry about the children" developers. As it happens I absolutely believe in protecting the user from themselves, but not at the expense of preventing valid data entry. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of DWUTKA at marlow.com Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 6:32 PM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various I think JC is agreeing with me on this, and I think you have a disconnect on what is a necessary limit, and what is an arbitrary limit. 255 characters is a necessary limit. It is set by the fact that a text field is defined to take up from 1 to 256 bytes. 1 byte is for the size actually stored, the rest leaves up to 255 characters of space. That is built into Jet. The only way around that limit is to either 'join' two or more text fields together (which I have done on RARE occasions), or use a Memo field. Memo fields can hold quite a bit more, however, there are drawbacks with Memo fields. However, the line between when to use one or the other is pretty clear. Is the field in question a data point, or is it a storage bin? In other words, is the field going to represent one particular fact? If it is a single fact, yet it may go over 200 characters, then either a second text field needs to be defined for carryover, or a memo field should be used. 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. Let's say you put gas in your car once a week. Would you only put in the amount you expect to use for the week, or would you completely fill your tank? If you only put in what you expect to use, if something UNEXPECTED happens, you'll run out of gas, which is exactly what you do to your users if you set arbitrary limits. 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. Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Scott Marcus Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 4:58 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various <<Might as well move them to a SQL server, that is hacked into every computer system in the world, to get as close to unlimited drive space. You just made my point. There are limits, but your argument is "lets not limit the data entry" because you somehow get burned on its size later. I'm not being theatrical just realistic. -- _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com