Dr Ron,

Just grabbing 1.5 years from unitab has 268,537 horses in races. This is going to start getting slow in access when you start running into the millions.

I use Oracle. There is a free version for personal use and it is quite good. It does have some limitations but they are much better than the access limitations.

Good Luck

DrRon,

The database contains fields and results for Metro races only being the "current" run.

However, there is a formguide which covers all Metro, country racing, and also the past runs of horses at country tracks are included.

There are some 500,000 horse runs you can filter.

Bear in mind you cannot update the database itself, updates are provided on CD.

__________________
RaceCensus - powerful system testing software.
Now with over 400,000 Metropolitan, Provincial and Country races!
http://www.propun.com.au/horse_raci...ng_systems.html
*RaceCensus now updated to 30/04/2024
Video overview of RaceCensus here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821YP_b0Pg

I use an Access database with 5 years of Oz Race Data in it.Its around 700Mb in size.3 million records .It performs fine with a bit of indexing.Building queries for non programmers is a breeze in access.It comes with Office professional.
It is a fantastic product for a desktop database.
Your best bet is to subscribe to some db service for your answers.But if you want a hobby build your own.

appreciate the help wesmip if you can give it

jamrad64 at yahoo dot com dot au

cheers

Hi Wesmip1,

Can Oracle perform rankings based on date, track & race number?

Curious to know, as most db's find this a problem or it gets mindblowingly complex and confusing.

__________________
RaceCensus - powerful system testing software.
Now with over 400,000 Metropolitan, Provincial and Country races!
http://www.propun.com.au/horse_raci...ng_systems.html
*RaceCensus now updated to 30/04/2024
Video overview of RaceCensus here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821YP_b0Pg

hi,i am using office 2000,i have never worked with a data base,however i have just decided to start building one,i know there will be plenty of hiccups on the way,however i am sure there is plenty of info on the net to help me on my way,office also has a wizard to help........
cheers

100% incorrect , if done properly there is no more chance of risk than any other application.

i am not saying it is the best or worst application for data, but to say you risk corruption is wrong, ( if i am wrong on this could you explain how i risk corruption over and above another app. )

You risk corruption in Excel just like Outlook Express.

The data files are not optimized to handle LARGE amounts of data.

By corruption, I mean the file system collapsing (not being able to read the data.

Try storing 60,000 rows of data in Excel, it will crash eventually.

If you think I am wrong and want proof, just google "Excel corrupt" and "Excel crash" and see the hundreds of postings and "tools" available to try and reclaim data.

There is even an obvious hint by Microsoft in the Microsoft Application Recovery tool, the saved document library, (which is why by default, Excel saves itself every 20 minutes or so) and the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Excel is designed for spreadsheets, analysis and reporting, not storing large amounts of data, which is why you are limited to 65,336 rows of data, the absolute edge of the precipice.

I know from experience, when I first started using Excel as a database with 45,000 rows of handtyped data exploded to be unrecoverable and a year's work disappeared forever into the ether.

I reasearched it fully and was amazed how commonplace it is, and switched to Access.

I do however store each year's tweaked data with my own input in Excel spreadsheets (around 42,000 rows each year) as a template, but I have one copy of each spreadsheet on my computer, one copy burned to disc and one copy on a USB drive.

I also have a copy within my Access database, and a copy within my Filemaker database, should anything go wrong with any of them.

__________________
RaceCensus - powerful system testing software.
Now with over 400,000 Metropolitan, Provincial and Country races!
http://www.propun.com.au/horse_raci...ng_systems.html
*RaceCensus now updated to 30/04/2024
Video overview of RaceCensus here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821YP_b0Pg

QUOTE=Chrome Prince]The data files are not optimized to handle LARGE amounts of data.

??? the new version of excel has over 1 million rows ( may be wrong ) but even the current sytem can handle Large data, but i may be wrong again

By corruption, I mean the file system collapsing (not being able to read the data.

incorrect i have many large files that do not break down

Try storing 60,000 rows of data in Excel, it will crash eventually.

i do / have and no problems

If you think I am wrong and want proof, just google "Excel corrupt" and "Excel crash" and see the hundreds of postings and "tools" available to try and reclaim data.

i dont wish to go down the your wrong i am right path but just to so it has proven stable when set up right for me

There is even an obvious hint by Microsoft in the Microsoft Application Recovery tool, the saved document library, (which is why by default, Excel saves itself every 20 minutes or so) and the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

this is an option that can be turned of and excel has had auto save for some time

Excel is designed for spreadsheets, analysis and reporting, not storing large amounts of data, which is why you are limited to 65,336 rows of data, the absolute edge of the precipice.

as above new version 1 million

I know from experience, when I first started using Excel as a database with 45,000 rows of handtyped data exploded to be unrecoverable and a year's work disappeared forever into the ether.

??? not sure why it happened to you

I also have a copy within my Access database, and a copy within my Filemaker database, should anything go wrong with any of them

agree copies of anything are important, but stating that excel is open to coruption is not from my experiance true and i push it to every boundry known. In that all is peace here just was not sure regarding your comment, but will re state if set up well excel will not corrupt a file. ( from my experiance )

Ozdoc,

I am stating from my experience too.

Isn't it better to advise people on what's gone wrong than what hasn't?

The new version does not have one million rows and Excel never will have one million rows, the file system cannot handle it.

65,536 rows is in the new Beta version which I have also road tested last month, being a Microsoft software agent.

You have been lucky.

You have gone down that path, by stating that I am wrong, and I supplied proof of what is inevitable.

Yes, you can turn off autosave, that wasn't the statement, the statement was the reason it is there built in in the first place.

I know why it happened to me, because when I lost my data, I contacted Microsoft who responded:

"Dear Sir,

Microsoft Excel is part of the Microsft Office package.

Within that package is a flat file Excel spreadsheet program, and Access a relational database.
While we have addressed many issues with Excel crashing through the release of Service Packs, the Excel package was never designed to hold large amounts of data. Large amounts of data should be stored within the Access program and for reporting purposes exported to the Excel program for reports, summaries, graphs etc.
It is recommended that large amounts of data not be stored in Excel as the file system is not as advanced as Access in coping with large numbers of records.

Regards,
Microsoft Office Support"

I am correct in my statements, just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it won't or can't happen to someone else.

My advice was offered as help and to be cautious. I don't want to be responsible for someone losing a year's work.

Just last week I was called into an organization, which lost all it's yearly cashflow projections due to file corruption.

__________________
RaceCensus - powerful system testing software.
Now with over 400,000 Metropolitan, Provincial and Country races!
http://www.propun.com.au/horse_raci...ng_systems.html
*RaceCensus now updated to 30/04/2024
Video overview of RaceCensus here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821YP_b0Pg