I created a database and related form for a survey. The survey has a number
of "open-ended" questions where people enter free-text responses. I
originally put all survey questions, including all the free-text, in one
table. When we tested it, I found that Access limits the record size and that
by having so many of these fields, all of which I created as Text data types,
the records will exceed the allowed size.
So, I read in the Access specs that Memo fields don't count toward record
size, so I changed all these text fields to Memo fields. This time, I
couldn't even save the table, because I got an error saying there were too
many *fields* in the table, even though I didn't change the number of fields,
and had well under the supposed limit of 255 fields.
Anyone have any suggestions other than breaking the questions into multiple
tables? I was running into a lot more complexity in terms of the
relationships, queries, form, etc. if I try to break the tables up, so if
there's a way to keep the single table, I'd rather do that.
Thanks in advance for any help!
George Nicholson - 07 Jan 2005 17:42 GMT
First, Compact the database (Tools>Database Utilities>Compact & Repair)
When you "change" a field datatype, you are actually creating a newfield,
copying "old" data into it and deleting the old field.
HOWEVER, the old field still exists behind the scenes and counts against the
255 field limit until you do a compact.
This may not solve your problem, but it's the first thing to do.

Signature
George Nicholson
Remove 'Junk' from return address.
>I created a database and related form for a survey. The survey has a number
> of "open-ended" questions where people enter free-text responses. I
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
> Thanks in advance for any help!
Wendy - 07 Jan 2005 18:59 GMT
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It did solve my problem.
> First, Compact the database (Tools>Database Utilities>Compact & Repair)
>
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help!