Maximum number of records in Access 2003

[Glinty]

Hi,
As a new user to access I am thinking of setting up a data base of my music.
The total number of tracks is in excess of 70,000. I have seen a simple
solution using excel which would be ok but I'm not sure if I can have 70,000
rows in one work sheet. A friend has suggested access which I am not
familiar with and don't know if this will allow 70,000 entries. Can anyone
please tell me what the maximum numbers are in both access and excel 2003.

Cheers
Glinty

 

[Joseph Meehan]

The max size varies with the version of Access. I believe 2003 is two
Gig. Most databases with only 70,000 records would not be even close to the
limit.

In general Access can handle far more data than Excel.

 

[Glinty]

Thanks Joseph, I've just found out the limit in Excel is about 65,000 so it
looks like I'm going to have to start learning about Access.
Cheers
Glinty

 

[John W. Vinson]

Thanks Joseph, I've just found out the limit in Excel is about 65,000 so it
looks like I'm going to have to start learning about Access.

Sounds like a more appropriate tool in any case. However... be sure you're
aware that Access is *NOT* "Excel on steroids". Excel is a spreadsheet; Access
is a relational database. They use different logic and different techniques,
and what would be a very good design for a spreadsheet may be abysmally bad
for Access (and vice versa).

Check out the introductions at

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials

John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[Glinty]

Thanks John,
There's plenty to go at in that list. It's just as well that I've got plenty
of time on my hands at the moment.
Thanks again
Glinty

 

[George Hepworth]

The limitation for Access is not the number of records, but the size of the
mdb file.

As noted, the max is 2 gb for an Access mdb. You can get around that, even,
by linking your Front End to tables in two or more BE files, each of which
can grow to the 2 gb limit.

As a point of comparison, I support an Access database in which one of the
primary tables currently holds over 1.3 million transaction records and
another table currently holds not quite a million records.

George

 

[George Hepworth]

Correction: Latest stats on the two tables I mentioned in this mdb:
Record Counts Members
Mailed 1,230,391
Total 1,398,922

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Very good advice from John, who has forgotten more than I ever knew
about Access. The learning curve is steep, but once you get going, you will
find it a great tool for the right jobs.