Microsoft Access database specifications
The following Access specification facts and figures are divided into object types and focuses on the Access database ‘JET’ engine (standard Access).
Unless stated, the following tables apply to all versions from 2003 (there are some variations For newer versions).
General
Attribute | Maximum / Comments |
| Access Database File Size (.MDB and .ACCDB) | 2 gigabytes, minus the space needed for system objects NOTE:
|
| Number of objects in a database | 32,768
|
| Number of modules (including forms and reports that have the HasModule property set to True) | 1,000
|
| Number of characters in an object name | 64
|
| Number of characters in a password | 14 for .MDB and 20 for .ACCDB
|
| Number of characters in a user name or group name | 20
|
| Number of concurrent users | 255
|
Table
Attribute | Maximum / Comments |
| Number of characters in a table name | 64
|
| Number of characters in a field name | 64
|
| Number of fields in a table | 255
|
| Number of open tables | 2048; the actual number might be smaller because of tables opened internally by Access
|
| Table size | 2 gigabyte minus the space needed for the system objects
|
| Number of characters in a Text field | 255 |
| Number of characters in a Memo field | 65,535 when entering data through the user interface;2 gigabytes of character storage when entering data programmatically |
| Size of an OLE Object field | 1 gigabyte
|
| Number of indexes in a table | 32 |
| Number of fields in an index | 10 |
| Number of characters in a validation message | 255 |
| Number of characters in a validation rule | 2,048 |
| Number of characters in a table or field description | 255 |
| Number of characters in a record (excluding Memo and OLE Object fields) when the UnicodeCompression property of the fields is set to Yes | 4,000 |
| Number of characters in a field property setting | 255 |
Query
Attribute | Maximum / Comments |
| Number of enforced relationships | 32 per table, minus the number of indexes that are on the table for fields or combinations of fields that are not involved in relationships* |
| Number of tables in a query | 32* |
| Number of joins in a query | 16* |
| Number of fields in a recordset | 255 |
| Recordset size | 1 gigabyte |
| Sort limit | 255 characters in one or more fields |
| Number of levels of nested queries | 50* |
| Number of characters in a cell in the query design grid | 1,024 |
| Number of characters for a parameter in a parameter query | 255 |
| Number of AND operators in a WHERE or HAVING clause | 99* |
| Number of characters in an SQL statement | Approximately 64,000* |
*Access specification – maximum values might be lower if the query includes multivalued (from version 2007) lookup fields.
Form and Report
Attribute | Maximum / Comments |
| Number of characters in a label | 2,048 |
| Number of characters in a text box | 65,535 |
| Form or report width | 22 in. (55.87 cm) |
| Section height | 22 in. (55.87 cm) |
| Height of all sections plus section headers (in Design view) | 200 in. (508cm) |
| Number of levels of nested forms or reports | 7 |
| Number of fields or expressions that you can sort or group on in a report | 10 |
| Number of headers and footers in a report | 1 report header/footer; 1 page header/footer; 10 group headers/footers |
| Number of printed pages in a report | 35,536 |
| Number of controls and sections that you can add over the lifetime of the form or report | 754 |
| Number of characters in an SQL statement that serves as the Recordsource or Rowsource property of a form, report, or control (.mdb, .accdb and .adp) | 32,750 |
Macro
Attribute | Maximum / Comments |
| Number of actions in a macro | 999
|
| Number of characters in a condition | 255
|
| Number of characters in a comment | 255
|
| Number of characters in an action argument | 255
|
Access Project (.adp)
Attribute | Maximum / Comments |
| Number of objects in an Access project (.adp) | 32,768 |
| Number of modules (including forms and reports that have the HasModule property set to True) | 1,000 |
| Number of characters in an object name | 64 |
| Number of columns in a table | 250 (Microsoft SQL Server 6.5) 1024 (Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, 2000, 2005 and 2008) |
Forms, Reports and Macros for .adp files have the same Access specification as .mdb/.accdb files.
The Access specification above should provide a useful resource especially when programming Microsoft Access using VBA.
The number of objects used especially for the heavier duty forms and reports can sometimes be a restriction and have had to use some work arounds to resolve the problem.