For one of my clients, I maintain an Access application running on an Oracle back-end database.
We have a "generic" search form that the user can use against any database table to fill out search criteria.? A "generic" grid form is populated with the search results.
Last month, they requested that I modify a "description" field from varchar(255) to varchar(4000).? Now the "generic" results grid takes too long to fill up with results (20 or 30 seconds for 1200 records).? It has been confirmed that Oracle is not the bottleneck as the same query is done in a fraction of a second.
I am looking for a solution to this performance issue, WITHOUT going back to varchar(255) for the description field.
--- To clarifiy:
Oracle is not the problem.
In one specific table, "PARTS", I modified the description field from varchar(255) to varchar(4000).? After I did this, then the Access grid that shows me the fields from PARTS (including the description field) takes a very long time to fill up.
The access? ODBC link now shows this description field as a "memo" type.