Mixing Data Types

[lizray]

I have a main table with a field "NameID" which is an Index and is Autonumber, thereby becomes a LONGINTEGER type. I only need up to 20,000 names and would like to use the INTEGER as the type for field in other tables (to reduce the size) that link to this main table. It seems to work ok, but can anyone tell me if there is any long term danger (or confusion) in doing this ?

 

[dhookom]

to reduce the size" and "only need up to 20,000 names"...? Why even do this? Why rish any issues?

Duane
Hook'D on Access
MS Access MVP

 

[lizray]

Although each table may have up to 20000 names, there are many many tables

 

[dhookom]

many many tables" with names sounds like a normalization issue. I would just use long integer. Have you done the math to determine how much file space you would save?

Duane
Hook'D on Access
MS Access MVP

 

[MajP]

I would have to think even with millions of names, any savings going from a 4 byte data type to a 2 byte data type, would be drastically overshadowed by the cost of additional tables.

 

[JoeAtWork]

You are looking for efficiencies in the wrong places. If anything slows down your database are takes up a lot of room, I can guarantee you it has nothing to do with using long integers.

I encourage you just to use long integer types and don't give a second thought about it. You may think it will always be 20000 names, but believe things always change. And it's not going to affect your database one bit.