Effect of Memo Field on Access File Size

[Paul Howarth]

I am planning on replacing four 35-character txt fields with 1 Memo field. A Memo field can handle about 65,000 characters.

Is the Access file size based on the number of characters in each Memo field?

Or does the mere existence of a Memo field automatically increase the file size by 65,000 characters for each Record with the Memo field - even though each Memo field may be Null?

[NeoPa]

Each field has some overhead, but minimal - probably just a pointer's worth. The space taken up is relative to the space used - pretty closely I believe.

That's not to say that all space is necessarily reclaimed when it could be, but after a Compact/Repair it should reflect the space actually used.

[Rabbit]

What are these fields? If they contain separate data, they should remain separate. If they are separate data but related, they should go in their own table. If it's none of these, why were they separated in the first place? It should be a text field of length 140, don't use memo if you don't have to.