Restrictions that apply to columns in a table

  • 3 minutes

When using Microsoft Dataverse for your business solutions, you should keep a few restrictions in mind.

Maximum number of columns in a table:

  • There's no hard upper limit on the number of columns that you can have in a table. But there's an upper boundary due to limits in how much data you can store in a single record. It's difficult to provide a specific number because each type of column can use a different amount of space. The upper limit depends on the total space that is used by all the columns for the table.

  • As a rule, you should have less than a few hundred columns in a table. If you have more than a few hundred columns in a table, then you should look at restructuring how you design the tables in your solutions. Try to split the table with an excessive number of columns into more than one table.

Rollup column limitations:

  • Max of 10 for each table

  • Max of 100 for each organization

  • Can't trigger workflows or flows

  • Can't reference another rollup column, a complex calculated or formula column. It must reference a simple column.

  • ModifiedBy and ModifiedOn columns are not updated when the rollup column is updated.

  • Can't include records in many-to-many (N:N) relationships. It can only include records in one-to-many (1:N) relationships.

  • Can't use one-to-many (1:N) relationships with the ActivityPointer or ActivityParty table.

Choice (sometimes referred to as Choices) columns:

  • Choice columns provide a set of options that are displayed in a drop-down control on a form or in a pick list control when you're using Advanced Find. Dataverse can support hundreds of options within a Choice, but you shouldn't consider hundreds as the upper limit. Usability studies show that people have trouble using a system where a drop-down control provides a large number of options. If you have too many options available, you won't be able to set a default value.

  • Use a Choice column to define categories for data. Don't use Choice columns to select categories that actually represent separate items of data. For example, rather than maintaining a Choice column that stores each of hundreds of possible manufacturers of a type of equipment, consider creating a table that stores references to each manufacturer and use a Lookup column instead of a Choice column.