Late insertion of New field in Table

[jim may]

My Access APP in very far down the road, with multiple queries, Forms, Reports, etc. The Client has requested the insertion of a NEW Field in my main table. What are the dangers of doing this? I guess I'd go to the Table (In Question) and in Design Mode at the appropriate row select "Insert-Row", then complete the particulars for the new field. Any assistance offered is appreciated!! Jim

 

[Smitty]

It's not going to hurt anything, unless the new field somehow alters the functionality or overall requirements. It might be a pain to set up new relationships for it, as well as updating all of your queries, forms, reports, etc., but I'd say it's more tedious than anything else.

 

[Micron]

It is possible that some forms or queries might have to be updated to use the new field, but adding it should have no impact on these objects if they will not rely on the new field. You also must consider whether or not the new field will be indexed, and if it must be, how will you handle the fact it will have no data since indexes cannot contain nulls (there are things you can do)? Also, if any recordsets are based on the table and their fields are referenced by column position and not name, they may return incorrect data or even fail.

 

[jim may]

Thanks guys... Jim May