How big is too big?

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Guest

What is the biggest database that Access can comfortablely handle? I know
Microsoft says 2GB minus the space needed for database objects, but I have
seen much smaller capacity suggested by other non-microsoft sources.
 
"Comfortably" is a difficult concept. I've seen databases with millions of
rows have very fast response, while other with only a few thousand rows have
been absolute dogs. The quality of the database design is the critical
factor, along with the usage profile (i.e. how many concurrent users, and
what they're doing: the mix between read-only and updating)
 
What is the biggest database that Access can comfortablely handle? I know
Microsoft says 2GB minus the space needed for database objects, but I have
seen much smaller capacity suggested by other non-microsoft sources.
Click to expand...

This depends on at LEAST the following factors:

- Nature of the data
- Memory size and processor speed of the computer used for Access
- network architecture
- network speed
- network traffic
- table size
- query optimization
- form and report design
- user tolerance for delay (is 45 seconds cause for delight, or 3/4
second cause for complaint? I've seen both)
- number of users

As you see... table size is in there. It's far from the most important
factor.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Join the online Access Chats
Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT
http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps
 
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