I've been working with Access for many years now -- and the "horror" stories that I have heard about Access as a "reliable" database I have discounted -- my experience, for databases where the largest table is say, 50,000 records, is that Access is in fact fast and reliable (not to mention easy to use, user friendly window features, etc...)
One of the many 'horror' stories I have heard is the "truncation" of text fields. Somehow (lack of compaction? clean programming???) Access at some point (from what I've heard) "truncates" text fields, e.g.,
Now is the time for all good men...(say in a 255 textbox).
becomes...
Now is the time
...I have never seen this; but, it brings up a good question. Say I have a field for "STATE", I know it will always use 2 spaces, so, should I set the "length" to '2' also? There are many cases where a textfield will be set to say, 8 characters, never more or less, should I set the field to 8? or does it hurt to leave it at 50? or even 255? Does Access commit the entire 50 or 255 when the table is saved?
If it is best to set an 8 character text field to 8 then I have a lot of revamping to do (although I compact and repair on each open/close + have no redundant or excess code anywhere, nor do I store calculations (beyond a simple DLookUp)) in text objects (another horror story - formulas disappearing that are stored as the source for a textbox).
I am currently using Access for ASP.NET on the web and it works beautifully although again I hear horror stories on that to (web site is Right now visitors < 100 a day -- I suppose in my best estimation Access can hold its own up to 300 hits a day -- my best guess.
Just a thought or two. Thanks.
One of the many 'horror' stories I have heard is the "truncation" of text fields. Somehow (lack of compaction? clean programming???) Access at some point (from what I've heard) "truncates" text fields, e.g.,
Now is the time for all good men...(say in a 255 textbox).
becomes...
Now is the time
...I have never seen this; but, it brings up a good question. Say I have a field for "STATE", I know it will always use 2 spaces, so, should I set the "length" to '2' also? There are many cases where a textfield will be set to say, 8 characters, never more or less, should I set the field to 8? or does it hurt to leave it at 50? or even 255? Does Access commit the entire 50 or 255 when the table is saved?
If it is best to set an 8 character text field to 8 then I have a lot of revamping to do (although I compact and repair on each open/close + have no redundant or excess code anywhere, nor do I store calculations (beyond a simple DLookUp)) in text objects (another horror story - formulas disappearing that are stored as the source for a textbox).
I am currently using Access for ASP.NET on the web and it works beautifully although again I hear horror stories on that to (web site is Right now visitors < 100 a day -- I suppose in my best estimation Access can hold its own up to 300 hits a day -- my best guess.
Just a thought or two. Thanks.