A97 table row number limits?

[oate3572]

Any thoughts on the upper limits (both theoretical and practical) on the number of rows in an Access 97 database table?

I am starting an application where the client has stipulated delivery in Access 97. My current db plan would result in a table with of the order of 5 million records. Trouble is, I won't have a chance to test until the database is effecitvely live.

I can segment the data into a number of separate databases, but need to plan for that now.

If I do stick to a single database, should I stop using Autonumber to generate my ID column?

thanks

 

[oate3572]

Forgot to say that my table currently has 5 columns - 1 autonumber (which I assume is a long), 2 longs and 2 strings (10 and 50 characters).

I reckon a total of 92 bytes, which multiplied by my 5 million row estimate gives me a 460 MB table.

Am I crazy to be attempting anything this big in Access?

thanks

 

[BattleDroid42]

The upward limit on an Access doesn't go by the number of records - it has to do with file size. The Access 97 limit is 1 GB. The upward limit is 2 GB for later versions of access. You should be okay but queries may run very slowly.

 

[Databaseguy]

5 million is a lot. I've had success with hundreds of thousands, but that was a well thought out, normalized DB with referential integrity and PKs/FKs set.

You may be better off using SQL as a back end.