Field.Size property (DAO)

Applies to: Access 2013, Office 2013

Sets or returns a value that indicates the maximum size, in bytes, of a Field object.

Syntax

expression .Size

expression A variable that represents a Field object.

Remarks

For an object not yet appended to the Fields collection, this property is read/write.

For fields (other than Memo type fields) that contain character data, the Size property indicates the maximum number of characters that the field can hold. For numeric fields, the Size property indicates how many bytes of storage are required.

Use of the Size property depends on the object that contains the Fields collection to which the Field object is appended, as shown in the following table.

Object appended to	Usage
Index	Not supported
QueryDef	Read-only
Recordset	Read-only
Relation	Not supported
TableDef	Read-only

When you create a Field object with a data type other than Text, the Type property setting automatically determines the Size property setting; you don't need to set it. For a Field object with the Text data type, however, you can set Size to any integer up to the maximum text size (255 for Microsoft Access databases). If you do not set the size, the field will be as large as the database allows.

For Long Binary and Memo Field objects, Size is always set to 0. Use the FieldSize property of the Field object to determine the size of the data in a specific record. The maximum size of a Long Binary or Memo field is limited only by your system resources or the maximum size that the database allows.

Example

This example demonstrates the Size property by enumerating the names and sizes of the Field objects in the Employees table.

    Sub SizeX() 
     
     Dim dbsNorthwind As Database 
     Dim tdfEmployees As TableDef 
     Dim fldNew As Field 
     Dim fldLoop As Field 
     
     Set dbsNorthwind = OpenDatabase("Northwind.mdb") 
     Set tdfEmployees = dbsNorthwind.TableDefs!Employees 
     
     With tdfEmployees 
     
     ' Create and append a new Field object to the 
     ' Employees table. 
     Set fldNew = .CreateField("FaxPhone") 
     fldNew.Type = dbText 
     fldNew.Size = 20 
     .Fields.Append fldNew 
     
     Debug.Print "TableDef: " & .Name 
     Debug.Print " Field.Name - Field.Type - Field.Size" 
     
     ' Enumerate Fields collection; print field names, 
     ' types, and sizes. 
     For Each fldLoop In .Fields 
     Debug.Print " " & fldLoop.Name & " - " & _ 
     fldLoop.Type & " - " & fldLoop.Size 
     Next fldLoop 
     
     ' Delete new field because this is a demonstration. 
     .Fields.Delete fldNew.Name 
     
     End With 
     
     dbsNorthwind.Close 
     
    End Sub