The maximum number of characters and rows in a database?

puppymagic · 04-18-2010, 10:01 PM

Is the maximum number of letters a database table column can contain 255?

and is it a bad idea to build a table with about 15 columns? thanks!!

paulsm4 · 04-18-2010, 10:14 PM

Hi -

"No" and "No".

The absolutely maximum #/columns or maximum #/rows in a database: "it depends". For example, in MySQL 5.0:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...unt-limit.html

In practice, however, any "reasonable" design for just about any common relational database can scale up as much as you want it to (or to as much disk, CPU and hardware as you can afford - whichever comes first

).

In general, "how many columns in a row" will depend on your DATA MODEL. Not on any limitation in the database.

So how many columns is "enough"?

A good rule of thumb is to "normalize" your database to at least 3NF.

'Hope that helps .. PSM