Help With File Size Limitations - Large Flat Files

From: Cory Sandahl <sandahl_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 15:45:27 -0800
Message-ID: <Pine.PCW.3.91.950104153554.13583A-100000_at_[0.0.0.0]>

Fellow DBAs:

I am not absolutely sure my problem is specific to MS Access or not (hence the cross-postings). The following explanation might be a bit long, but please bear with me.

PROBLEM: I work with a group of 15 interpreters who are using the Psion 3a palmtop computer to store information on patients that they visit in the community. On a weekly basis I transfer this information from the palmtops into MS Access to print reports for our directors. Because it wasn't possible to setup a one-to-many relationship with the DB supplied on the Psion, I was forced to design the records flat. Each record consists of patient name, address, other miscellaneous contact information along with a series of contact dates and descriptions (see below):

      Patient No:
       Last Name:
      First Name:
    Sponsor Code:
Case Mgmnt (Y/N):


                :

     Mother Name:
     Father Name:
  Other Fam Mems:


                :

           Phone:
         Address:


                :

	   Date1:
  	   Type1:
  	   Time1:
	Comment1:
     	        :
  	   Date2:
  	   Type2:
    	   Time2:
        Comment2:


                :

  	   Date3:
  	   Type3:
  	   Time3:
	Comment3:

These Date, Type, Time and Comment fields number up to 47 (Date47, Type47, Time47 Comment47). As you can imagine, this creates an enormous record size. Once I import the flat file into MS Access I can then parse the information into logical tables to create the one-to-many relationship and run my reports.

The problem I am having is that MS Access only allows a record size of up to 2k and when I try to import the flat ASCII file from the palmtop with records exceeding this file size limit, I get a Field Set Failure error message and the entire contents of that particular record is dropped from the import.

QUESTION: Does anybody have a suggestion as to what I could do at this point? Might it be possible to redesign the DB file on the Psion 3a in such a way so that this error wouldnt occur? Perhaps exporting the Psion DB file as fixed length and writing code in MS Access to append column by column?

Please post responses publicly and to my email address if possible.

Thanks in advance!

---

Cory Sandahl
Programmer/Analyst
University of Washington
sandahl_at_u.washington.edu

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Received on Thu Jan 05 1995 - 00:45:27 CET