November 26, 2004 • Vol.26 Issue 48
Page(s) 21 in print issue
One of the perennial problems perpetrated by pedantic programmers is returning far too many rows from a server, processing them, and sending them back to be stored in the database. When working with home databases like JET, this might be the only option you have as there is no "server-side" processor to handle in situ edits. However, when you're working with a serious system that's not hooked up to a voting machine, it's usually a good idea to avoid round trips to the server to fetch the data, especially if you intend to simply change the data and send it back. (A round trip refers to the process of opening a connection, revalidating security credentials, submitting a query to the server, compiling the query, executing the query, building a rowset, and sending it back up the wire to the client. It's an expensive process, akin to going to the video store in Cleveland when you live in Redmond.)
