What is the overhead in having redundant tables and/or columns?

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Guest

I'm maintaining a large complex database that has existed since version 2.0.
I know there are lots of redundant objects and many tables and columns that
are not used. However, cleaning it up whilst guaranteeing not top break
anything is almost impossible. Just to remove a suspected redundant column I
would have to examine several hundred queries, forms and reports. If only
Access had a real search mechanism! I'm just wondering what overhead having
an empty column causes or a table with just a few rows that is never used.
 
mscertified said:
I'm maintaining a large complex database that has existed since version 2.0.
I know there are lots of redundant objects and many tables and columns that
are not used. However, cleaning it up whilst guaranteeing not top break
anything is almost impossible. Just to remove a suspected redundant column I
would have to examine several hundred queries, forms and reports. If only
Access had a real search mechanism! I'm just wondering what overhead having
an empty column causes or a table with just a few rows that is never used.
Click to expand...

Not a lot of overhead. Some yes but not a lot.

See the Scan and replace utilities section at the Microsoft Access
third party utilities, products, tools, modules, etc. page at my
website.
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/thirdparty.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
 
I'm maintaining a large complex database that has existed since
version 2.0. I know there are lots of redundant objects and many
tables and columns that are not used. However, cleaning it up
whilst guaranteeing not top break anything is almost impossible.
Just to remove a suspected redundant column I would have to
examine several hundred queries, forms and reports. If only Access
had a real search mechanism! I'm just wondering what overhead
having an empty column causes or a table with just a few rows that
is never used.
Click to expand...

This is where a product like Speed Ferret comes in *very* handy --
can very easily save the cost of purchasing it the first time you
use it. It will allow you to preview the changes, and eliminate the
ones you don't want and just save the ones you want. And finding
which things are used by other objects is easy, too.

Unfortunately, Speed Ferret never had a purely Access 2003 version
-- it works with A2K3 but only if you have A2K2 installed. They are,
however, hard at work on a standalone A2K7 version.

I don't work for them or get any money from promoting them, but I
really value the product and use it a lot for keeping projects
clean, and for implementing major structural revisions.
 
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