Memo Fields

[ken]

I have 5 memo fields in one of my tables. I need to add 7 more. Will
this be a problem? Am I being paranoid?
Thanks

[Ed Robichaud]

12 memo fields in a single table suggests a design problem. Are you
convinced that none of the memo fields' contents can't be categorized in 255
character text fields?
-Ed
"ken" <ge****@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...

I have 5 memo fields in one of my tables. I need to add 7 more. Will
this be a problem? Am I being paranoid?
Thanks

[Bas Cost Budde]

Ed Robichaud wrote:

12 memo fields in a single table suggests a design problem. Are you
convinced that none of the memo fields' contents can't be categorized in 255
character text fields?

Maybe you need a subtable with the PK of this table, a sequence number
and one (1) memo field.

--
Bas Cost Budde, Holland
http://www.heuveltop.nl/BasCB/msac_index.html

[ken]

In this table I track descriptions of a certain ID number. Basically
what fits in the memo fields has to be more then 255 characters. I need
to use 12 memo fields. How would one implement this? Bas Cost Budde are
you suggesting I have 12 tables that hold 1 memo field and could be
connected to the main table with Primary Keys or some sort of an ID
system?

[ken]

I need to have 12 memo fields. If its not good to organize them in a
single table how should I do this then? I have never used memo fields
before so I need some advice.

[Bas Cost Budde]

ken wrote:

In this table I track descriptions of a certain ID number. Basically
what fits in the memo fields has to be more then 255 characters. I need
to use 12 memo fields. How would one implement this? Bas Cost Budde are
you suggesting I have 12 tables that hold 1 memo field and could be
connected to the main table with Primary Keys or some sort of an ID
system?

What is the relationship between those descriptions? And what makes you
think you need 12 of them, do you have twelve distinct pieces of
information?

--
Bas Cost Budde, Holland
http://www.heuveltop.nl/BasCB/msac_index.html

[ken]

wow...how does a post written at 8:50 AM get posted after a 1:43 one...
probably since google groups is still in beta?

[ken]

Yes that's the point. I have 12 distinct pieces of information. All 12
may not be used at the same time though. I need to know how many memos
I can have in 1 table.

The other thing I could do is have 1 table with 1 memo field, 1 ID that
would relate it to the main table and 1 ID that would state which one
of the 12 of the above distinct pieces it belongs to...hemm...what do
you guys think?

[Arno R]

"ken" <ge****@gmail.com> schreef in bericht news:11**********************@g49g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

Yes that's the point. I have 12 distinct pieces of information. All 12
may not be used at the same time though. I need to know how many memos
I can have in 1 table.

I use a weird importtable to get 'weird' Excel-data in Access.
At the moment this table has 118 ! Memo-fields ... (weird, yes indeed ....)
If needed a table is generated with 255 Memo-fields ...

So don't worry about the number. Worry about the design.

Arno R

[David W. Fenton]

"ken" <ge****@gmail.com> wrote in
news:11*********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com:

I need to have 12 memo fields. If its not good to organize them in
a single table how should I do this then? I have never used memo
fields before so I need some advice.

What kind of data is in the 12 memo fields? Perhaps if it's 12
varieties of the same kind of information, it would make sense to
have a dedicated table where each record has a foreign key pointing
to the parent record and a type field that indicates which type of
memo data it is.

There are some UI issues with that, however, but not insurmountable.
It depends on the degree to which users have a need to see more than
one memo at a time.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[ken]

The memo fields hold paragraphs which are discriptions that relate to
the record to which they belong to. The descriptions do not relate to
each other other then th efact that they are about the same subject.
What does UI stand for?

[ken]

also would having 1 memo field and that keys identifying it to one of
the 12...would that make the database more stable work faster less
corrupt? What are my risks for just leaving it as it is?

[David W. Fenton]

"ken" <ge****@gmail.com> wrote in
news:11**********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com:

The memo fields hold paragraphs which are discriptions that relate
to the record to which they belong to. The descriptions do not
relate to each other other then th efact that they are about the
same subject.
How are they presented on a report? One right after the other? If
so, having them in another table seems to me to make a lot of sense.
What does UI stand for?

User interface.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[David W. Fenton]

"ken" <ge****@gmail.com> wrote in
news:11**********************@o13g2000cwo.googlegr oups.com:

also would having 1 memo field and that keys identifying it to one
of the 12...would that make the database more stable work faster
less corrupt? What are my risks for just leaving it as it is?

Well, it means that you'd not have any memo pointers in the main
record, which means that if a memo pointer got corrupted (which is
one of the most common types of corruption in an Access
application), you'd lose only one memo, whereas with 12 memos in a
single record, you'd need to recreate the entire record and could
lose more than just the single memo with the corrupted pointer.

However, I've never implemented that kind of structure for memos.

But I've also never had a table with more than 3 or 4 memo fields.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc