Reg: How to store text of length more than 255 characters in column?

[ssb]

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

[Douglas J. Steele]

Use a Memo field instead

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)

"ssb" <ma******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:de**************************@posting.google.c om...

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

[Alan Webb]

SSB,
If the size you need is more than 255 and you want the flexibility of
querying text inside the column you can use an old trick of DBA's of
yesteryear--overflow columns. The DBA would add additional 255 character
columns to the schema to accomodate more text than would fit in a single
column. Then he or she would build a view which concantenated together the
contents of the columns. It's a kludge and it flies in the face of orthodox
relational database design but it gets the job done.
Me? I use MSDE so I can use the nvarchar data type. This gives me 4000
characters in a single column and support for langauges that don't use our
ANSI character set.

"ssb" <ma******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:de**************************@posting.google.c om...

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

[Pieter Linden]

ma******@yahoo.com (ssb) wrote in message news:<de**************************@posting.google. com>...

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

use a Memo field.

[ssb]

Thanks Doug.......Memo type seems to work......

"Douglas J. Steele" <NOSPAM_djsteele@NOSPAM_canada.com> wrote in message news:<MS**************@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.r ogers.com>...

Use a Memo field instead

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)

[Rob]

ma******@yahoo.com (ssb) wrote in message news:<de**************************@posting.google. com>...

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

You'll probably get a million responses here, but use a MEMO field data type.
Rob

[Alan Webb]

Douglas,
The last time I played with Memo fields I was frustrated to find that Access
treated them like objects and gave me a limited ability to query against
them. It soured me on the datatype and since then I've avoided it. This
was in Access 97, I believe. Have things changed for the better?

"Douglas J. Steele" <NOSPAM_djsteele@NOSPAM_canada.com> wrote in message
news:MS**************@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.ro gers.com...

Use a Memo field instead

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)

"ssb" <ma******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:de**************************@posting.google.c om...

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

[Jeff Leckrone]

In Access, you can store a string of more that 255 characters by
switching the field type from text to Memo.

[Douglas J. Steele]

AFAIK, there's no restriction against querying them. You can't, however,
sort on Memo fields, which means you can't use them with DISTINCT clause or
UNION statements. (you can use UNION ALL instead though)\

FWIW, I'm talking about Access 97, since that's what I do most of my work in
still.

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)

"Alan Webb" <kn*****@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:qz*****************@news.uswest.net...

Douglas,
The last time I played with Memo fields I was frustrated to find that Access treated them like objects and gave me a limited ability to query against
them. It soured me on the datatype and since then I've avoided it. This
was in Access 97, I believe. Have things changed for the better?

"Douglas J. Steele" <NOSPAM_djsteele@NOSPAM_canada.com> wrote in message
news:MS**************@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.ro gers.com...

Use a Memo field instead

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)

"ssb" <ma******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:de**************************@posting.google.c om...

Hi,

As I understand, in MS-Access, the maximum length of data type "TEXT"
is 255. Therefore, I am able to store a maximum of 255 characters only
in the column cells.

Is there a way to store longer text information in a column..?

Thanks.

[Alan Webb]

Jeff,
Right, but Memo has limitations when it comes to sorting by that colum,
inclusion in some types of queries, etc. that make me avoid it. Besides,
MSDE ships with Access since 2K and implements enough of SQL Server that I'm
happy to use that instead of Jet.

"Jeff Leckrone" <jl*******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e2**************************@posting.google.c om...

In Access, you can store a string of more that 255 characters by
switching the field type from text to Memo.