Why You Might Need This Free Access Database

Before deploying your brand-new Access database into a production environment, wouldn't you like to know whether it will stand up to a heavy load? Here is a tool that can help in avoiding situations where you deliver your database and two months later the client is complaining that it takes FOREVER to get anything done. Is Access really that bad, or is it your code?

Where the Data Came From

Most of us like to conduct tests prior to releasing our applications for normal use, but it always isn't meaningful to test on only a handful of rows of data. Recently, one of my colleagues, MVP Ben Clothier , decided to do something about that problem. He made this testing database available to his fellow Access Developers.

This free sample database was developed by Patrick Crews and Giuseppe Maxia. It contains six tables and approximately 4 million records. Ben took their existing sample database and adapted it for Microsoft Access.

While it can not answer every question, it can be useful in answering questions that require a dataset consisting of more than ten rows of data.

The database can be useful in assessing:

• Which general classes of SQL statement (e.g. Joins or subqueries) will perform better in my Access Relational Database Application?
• How does Access use indexes in my tables and how efficient is it under different conditions?
• How well will it perform in a networked environment?