Tom -
It's really your call - here are some points to think about: 1. When you have a table with a NOTE field, then the width of the record is variable. In the rare event that you have corruption in this table, you cannot use the automatic fix option in R:Scope - you'll have to fix the records manually. 2. When a note field is edited, if additional characters are added to the field, depending on the NOTE_PAD setting, it may require that, internally, R:BASE will delete the current record and copy it to the bottom of the data file since all the new characters won't fit into the original space. You can control this somewhat by increasing the NOTE_PAD value, but then you may be storing lots of blank space. In addition, you may wish to RELOAD the database more often to remove the blank space that accumulates when a record has been deleted and moved to the bottom of the file. 3. In older versions of R:BASE there were limitations as to the flexibility of the VARCHAR data types - but now they are pretty flexible and can be managed in pretty much the same way as a NOTE field. 4. Whereas there is a size limit (mentioned below) to a row using a NOTE field, the size of a VARCHAR field is 256MB. So if your users will be entering lots of text, the VARCHAR field may be the way to go. 5. VARCHAR fields also allow font and formatting settings to be saved as part of the data itself - so if your users need that flexibility, then use a VARCHAR. There probably are more differences - perhaps others would chime in with their thoughts. For myself, in the last few years, I have tended to use more VARCHAR fields than NOTE fields. JMHO! Sami From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of TOM HART Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 9:14 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: DB Memo Sami, Thanks for the help, I changed the data type to VarChar and one record I was having trouble with worked fine. Is the moral to this story use VarChar instead of Note? Tom Hart ----- Original Message ---- From: Sami Aaron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: RBASE-L Mailing List <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 9:06:53 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: DB Memo Tom - You don't say which version of R:BASE you're using, but if it's version 7.6 or lower, there is a limit of 4,096 characters per record (Turbo B-8 has increased it to 32,768). If your table has multiple note fields, it's possible that the couple of records you've encountered that have this problem have gotten to the limit on line length. If that's the case, you could change them to VARCHAR fields and remove the line length limitation. Sami ____________________________ Sami Aaron Software Management Specialists 913-915-1971 [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of TOM HART Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:27 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - DB Memo I have a form that has a DB Memo field, using a Note column. Most of the time the Memo works fine, but occassionally when I type in a long string of text it will only save the first 3 or 4 characters. I can delete all the data in the field and still won't let me put in more characters. The problem is erractic. I can go edit the data in the table and put in a long string, go back to the form and everything is fine, but if I make any change in the DB Memo it Spazzes out. Example: Today is such a nice day, etc................... Will only save: Toda Previous and next customer will work fine Tom Hart
