All this talk about DataBases

[-= JB =-]

On May 31, 2007, at 1:55 PM, J. Landman Gay wrote:
>
> Or you could store it in a text file and just read that in. In any 
> case, it's all the same approach; store the data as a single text 
> variable. With this method, you use offset() or lineoffset() to find 
> the record(s) you want, and use a display card to load in each record 
> as needed. The display card  would have the same number of fields as 
> record items (40 in your case) and parse out the record data to fill 
> each field appropriately. You need to write your own navigation 
> commands with this method, re-filling the fields with the next or 
> previous line of data on demand. When the user changes cards, you need 
> a closeCard handler that gathers the field data, inserts appropriate 
> item delimiters, and writes it back to the correct line in the text 
> variable.
>
> This is the method I used for a 40,000 record data set. The data was 
> stored in a text file on disk and the application was only a single 
> card that displayed the current record. This has the advantage of 
> keeping the data separate from the interface, and the client only 
> needed to backup the text file.
>
    I am very new at using Revolution but I am a long time HyperCard 
user & still use it.
    Like you said the data could be stored in a text file.  In HyperCard 
one problem with
    storing the data in a field was the field had a limit of around 
32,000 chars.  But this
    could be overcome by creating new fields as the database grew and 
deleting them
    if it decreased.  The find command from hypercard would do the job 
pretty fast.

    My question about Revolution concerns field limits.  I haven't read 
anything about
    a character limit.  Is there a character limit in Revolution Fields. 
  If there isn't one
    that is actual is there one that is practical.  At what point doe 
the find command get
    too slow while searching a field or other things like sorting etc.

thanks,
-=>JB<=-