Making a database, so one field can hold *unlimited length? *slvd*

[wpearsall]

hey ya,

How do i make my database table, so as one field, can hold about 500 - 1000 Chars?

currently i have a table, which i need to store URLs in, but a URL Like:
http://thewalks.ods.org:88/modules.p...stics&op=Stats

is being cut down to:
http://thewalks.ods.org:88/modules.php?name=Statis

how is it i can make it hold a larger length?

Possible or?

TNX

[Mega_Man]

If it'a an Access table, make the field of type 'Memo'
If it's SQL then just make it text (not Varchar) and it will create a pointer to another area which allows 65535 characters.

Mega.

[wpearsall]

kool, tnx, know that was there

OK,,, Select * From _ Where This IS "this" and This IS NOT "this"

The MySQL Version:

"SELECT * FROM table WHERE this1='This' AND this2 !='This'"

How do i do that with access?...

The IS NOT part?

[Mega_Man]

"SELECT * FROM table WHERE this1 = 'This' AND NOT(this2 ='This'")

Mega.

[wpearsall]

: wow, VB is really, practical huh

Tnx

[BruceG]

The "not equal" operator (<>) will also work in Access as well as many other DBMS'.

[brucevde]

How do i make my database table, so as one field, can hold about 500 - 1000 Chars?

If it's SQL then just make it text (not Varchar) and it will create a pointer to another area which allows 65535 characters.

In SQL 7.0 and up a varchar can hold 8000 characters. More than enough for what wpearsall needs.

[Mega_Man]

In SQL 7.0 and up a varchar can hold 8000 characters. More than enough for what wpearsall needs.

True.. but why would you want to do that?
IF you set a Varchar to be 8000 characters, you are telling SQL server to use an entire page for that field. A helluva waste of database space if your varchar field only has 100 characters in it.

Mega.

[seoptimizer2001]

Originally posted by Mega_Man
True.. but why would you want to do that?
IF you set a Varchar to be 8000 characters, you are telling SQL server to use an entire page for that field. A helluva waste of database space if your varchar field only has 100 characters in it.

Mega.

Yes, but it depends on how the field will be used, some functions won't work on fields with data type text. For one I know the Replace() function will not work. But I agree about saving space if most of the records will not be holding the same amount of data.

[brucevde]

IF you set a Varchar to be 8000 characters, you are telling SQL server to use an entire page for that field. A helluva waste of database space if your varchar field only has 100 characters in it.

A Varchar field is variable length. So a field that has only 100 characters and is defined as 8000 only takes up 103 bytes not 8003. (There is 3 bytes of overhead for every varchar column).

But you are right one must weigh the cost of whether to use a Varchar or Text column.