Integer or Byte Data Type?

[Phil]

Several years ago I remember reading it was best to use the
Integer Data Type instead of Byte (even if the values where always
going to be < 256)
We're now using Access 2007 with some very large tables. Should we use
byte on all fields where we can?

 

[John W. Vinson]

Several years ago I remember reading it was best to use the
Integer Data Type instead of Byte (even if the values where always
going to be < 256)
We're now using Access 2007 with some very large tables. Should we use
byte on all fields where we can?

If you're pushing the 2GByte size limit or the 2000 characters per record
limit, then you can use Byte; I believe there's some minor performance penalty
but probably nothing to worry about. However if you're pushing those limits
you should really consider storing the data in SQL/Server - this is becoming a
very economical and managable option.

But how large is "very large"? A million records is perfectly managable.

 

[Phil]

Thanks. we're pushing neither the 2GB or 2000 byte limit,
about 1.2 million records is the largest i recall.

We did turn to SQLite to handle at least one task though as
Access (2007, Vista) would give up after several minutes
with a "not enough memory" message. SQLite completed the task
very quickly. That was with 1GB ram. Later we upgraded to 3GB.
Same table, same task...same error message.