Looking for information concerning the limits of Access

[Erwin Moller]

Hi group,

Maybe this is a silly question, but I have to answer it for a customer, and
I have no clue where to start looking for information.

Situation: I developed a few officetools for a customer years ago. It was
ASP/VB script with Access as backend database, all webdriven stuff, no
dot.net.

Now they grew a lot and the database is getting bigger and bigger.
(Luckily it is not getting slower and slower, so I probably designed it well
in those days. )

Now they want to know IF and WHEN access will give up.
They worry about very large tables and such.

I told them they better start worrying about that if a problem arrises, but
they don't agree.

Well, now I have to answer questions like: how many row can a table hold?
How big can an access database grow?
(Personally I think these questions are silly because at the moment the
database is only around 10 meg big, and holds 20.000 row max in a table,
which I expect to be not even close to some magical boundary, but I could
be wrong.)

It runs on a W2000 Server with Access 2000.
Everything is up-to-date.

I have no clue where to find such information.

Can anybody help and point me to such resources?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

 

[RoyVidar]

Erwin Moller wrote in message

Hi group,

Maybe this is a silly question, but I have to answer it for a customer, and
I have no clue where to start looking for information.

Situation: I developed a few officetools for a customer years ago. It was
ASP/VB script with Access as backend database, all webdriven stuff, no
dot.net.

Now they grew a lot and the database is getting bigger and bigger.
(Luckily it is not getting slower and slower, so I probably designed it well
in those days. )

Now they want to know IF and WHEN access will give up.
They worry about very large tables and such.

I told them they better start worrying about that if a problem arrises, but
they don't agree.

Well, now I have to answer questions like: how many row can a table hold?
How big can an access database grow?
(Personally I think these questions are silly because at the moment the
database is only around 10 meg big, and holds 20.000 row max in a table,
which I expect to be not even close to some magical boundary, but I could
be wrong.)

It runs on a W2000 Server with Access 2000.
Everything is up-to-date.

I have no clue where to find such information.

Can anybody help and point me to such resources?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

The theoretic limit is 2GB, but I've read that it might start behaving
a
bit strange when you're getting closer to it. But I wouldn't know,
cause
I've never had databases that big ;-)

Here's a link on capabilities
http://www.databasezone.com/techdocs/acclimit.html

 

[Erwin Moller]

Erwin Moller wrote in message


The theoretic limit is 2GB, but I've read that it might start behaving
a
bit strange when you're getting closer to it. But I wouldn't know,
cause
I've never had databases that big ;-)

Me neither.

Here's a link on capabilities
http://www.databasezone.com/techdocs/acclimit.html

Thanks, that is a nice overview to throw in the face of people who bug me
with difficult questions.

Thanks,

Regards,
Erwin Moller

 

[John Vinson]

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:43:46 +0100, Erwin Moller

You can use "Specifications" as a keyword in the online help to get
all the information also posted on the website elsethread.

Well, now I have to answer questions like: how many row can a table hold?
How big can an access database grow?
(Personally I think these questions are silly because at the moment the
database is only around 10 meg big, and holds 20.000 row max in a table,
which I expect to be not even close to some magical boundary, but I could
be wrong.)

<chuckle> Tiny. When you get 200 times the current size you're out of
room; a hundred times bigger should be no sweat with proper design.

I know of at least one database with a 20,000,000 row table. In
practice, when you either get to 5,000,000 rows *or* start having
unresolvable performance problems you can start thinking about moving
the backend to SQL/Server (and you may decide you're just fine where
you are).

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[George Nicholson]

You can also check the Help file using "specifications" or "limitations" as
a search term. The 2 gig limitation is there, along with other constraints.

--
George Nicholson

Remove 'Junk' from return address.



"Erwin Moller"

 

[Erwin Moller]

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:43:46 +0100, Erwin Moller

You can use "Specifications" as a keyword in the online help to get
all the information also posted on the website elsethread.


<chuckle> Tiny. When you get 200 times the current size you're out of
room; a hundred times bigger should be no sweat with proper design.

I know of at least one database with a 20,000,000 row table. In
practice, when you either get to 5,000,000 rows *or* start having
unresolvable performance problems you can start thinking about moving
the backend to SQL/Server (and you may decide you're just fine where
you are).

That will be Postgresql for sure. If it is up to me.
But hey, who is asking my opinion? ;-)
I am not a big fan of M$ stuff, but it is everywhere around me, so I have to
adopt.
Just last week I discovered that the same SQL produces different results if
ran through ASP/VB/Jet or directly pasted into the querywindow of Access.
Turned out that the LIKE characters are different. * in access and % (as it
should be) through ASP/VB/Jet. Pfft.. Very confusing. :-/
(missing Postgresql, but I'll get over it. )

Thanks for your response and time!

Regards,
Erwin Moller