[AccessD] Access "Bloat" - Basic Questions

Deleting the records and then setting Compact on close will do it unless
they keep the app open, or unless the tables are in the back end then I
think you have to trigger the compact on the back end through code.

Another solution posted in bygone years on the list is to put the temp
tables in an external db - create the mdb and tables on the fly, use 'em and
delete when done.

Rocky


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Brad Marks
Sent: September 20, 2011 10:58 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Access "Bloat" - Basic Questions

My background is in the mainframe world where we never had to be concerned
about bloat.

Now I work in the Microsoft Access world and it appears that I have had my
first encounter with significant bloating.

We have an Access 2007 application that obtains data from several SQL-Server
tables (via ODBC) and from two Excel files.

This application creates a number of reports.  One of the reports needs data
from 2 SQL-Server tables and 2 Excel files.  Because of the complexity of
the data, we cannot simply use queries to create the report, but we have had
to resort to an intermediate Access table that is updated with VBA code via
Record-Set processing.  Once the data is processed and stored in this
intermediate table, a query is used to pull this data from the table for use
by the report. 

The report in question can be run for any desired date range.  If the date
range is small, we see little increase in the size of the accdb file.
However, if the date range selected is large (like a full year's worth of
data), the accdb file grows from 15 MB to 85MB.  I believe that this large
increase in size is primarily caused by the Access table that is used for
the intermediate processing of the data.

In the mainframe world, we used "temporary work files" for such intermediate
processing.  Is there something similar available in Access 2007?

One idea that I have considered is to use a delete query to clear out all of
the records in the intermediate table after the report is generated and then
add a "Compact on close" option to the application.

Again, I am new to the world of Access bloat and would like to better
understand how others handle this issue.

Thanks,
Brad

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