delimited text files vs. fixed length for speed issues?

[MdmGuil]

We are looking at creating a large text file which we will link to in Access 97, and join with another large linked text file to create the set of data we need. Would that join be faster if we made that text file delimited or if we made it fixed length?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Frink]

Hallo,

If you're importing text into Access, then I would guess that the speed of reading/writing the disk would be far more noticable than the speed of finding delimiters, so I would go for delimited, particularly if you have large text fields with not much data in.
If you're not importing these text files, but just looking up data in them, then fixed width would be much better as you can open the file for random access and just get the record number you want.

Hope that helps,

- Frink

 

[MichaelRed]

While I agree w/ "Frink" in the narrow context, I would add that if speed is really an issue, then "Linking" is not really an option at all. Further, if the external data is dynamic, you really can't maintain indecies on the lined file, so random access has some other issues with concurrency.

This is potentially one of those where fighting off the alligators will keep you from ever draining the swamp. I can only advise EXTREME caution. Sounds like the horse-cart-monkey-football conventions.

MichaelRed
m.red@att.net

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over