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Next step after Access?

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11 replies

by bill_s1416

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I've been an Access user for years designing and running desktop database app's. My work, however, has taken the size of my Access databases to half a million records and 1.5GB. Access completely crawls at this level. Furthermore, I need to perform more statistical analysis that Access seems to be designed for. I feel like I'm needing to take the next step in database usage. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any other "desktop" database app's that are significantly more capable than Access. Thus, I'm guessing I need to bite the bullet and begrudgingly buy and learn the server / enterprise database software. What would be the best one to ease into for a MS Access user like me? Would it be MySQL, for instance? What's the learning curve like for an Access user? And finally, will it run on a desktop computer running Windows XP?

11 replies

by ahar

depends on what you want. If you want to stay with microsoft, i whould prefer the free implementation of the SQL-Server, the MSDE. Take a look at the limitations. The MSDE is the desktopversion of the SQL-Server. If you do not want to take a microsoft product or if price is a matter take a open source database like mysql or postgresql.
In my opinion there only thing you have to learn is that msaccess has very little to do with an relational database keep in mind that you have to start learning almost from the beginning.
I've running MSDE and postres on different desktops with XP.

by ahar

Best way is to go to www.microsoft.com
enter msde in the search-field - one of the first hits is the download-page. In my opinion it's a good thing to take a look at the other hits - they may be the entrypoint for answers of further questions.

by ma407

You can use MS ACCESS to work with SQL Server.

However, you do not get the BEST performance.

I am learning other ways to work with SQL, but to start MS Access is perfect.

mars

by bill_s1416

Access on top of SQL Server sounds attractive since I know Access well. However, my concern is Access is a dog with the size of databases I am working with 1.5+GB with half a million records. Will SQL Server in the background fix the speed issue with Access on top, or no?

by jdmercha

If you need to do complex statistical analysis, you might want to look int SPSS or SAS.

by salamander

I personally prefer SPSS, but either SPSS or SAS should adequately perfom any common multivariate analyses that most statistical analyses require (most flavors of linear regression). There should be more specialized packages available for more sophisticated analyses (and I'm thinking of nonlinear least squares and time series analyses), for which I'd specifically recommend LIMDEP.

by jdmercha

I don't know for sure, but in using Access as a front end to an SQL server database, the data is hadled by the SQL server. Access is only handling queries, forms and reports. I don't think Access has to load the complete table.

Keep in mind that this all assumes that you are running SQL server on a seperate machine.

by john.a.wills

I have front-ended Access to SQL Server and had reasonably good response with millions of rows to select from. Things can get slow, but SQL Server is then to blame.

by ma407

I'm curious John. Why do you think your SQL ran slow? I'm most concerned about writing VBA scripts to handle all the transactions in Access. If I write good scripts and learn to use ADO's I hope this is a good solution. Otherwise...Visual Basic or C++

Access looks so much easier, no?

by pacav69

Dear Bill

You can visit this website http://www.devside.net where you can download the complete development package that will provide you with mysql, php, phpmyadmin, apache, perl. It is designed so that you can develop applications using mysql and php. It is a standalone environment and works on windows XP. What you could do is setup a website after developing it on your PC where you could use the web site server to do the number crunching for your stats. I'm a MS Access developer and there are some clients that would like to start with msaccess and later goto a website based. The mysql program is similar to access sql there are a few adjustments to make but i'm sure that you will adjust to it.

Cheers
Paul

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