Frequently Asked Questions - Uploaded Databases

Topic navigation: Web Browsers - Service Usage - Uploaded Databases - Technical - General

Topics in this section

• What are the size limits for my data files?
• Why is the preferred data file format?
• Why can't I use any batch processing services?
• Why can't I see a database I've uploaded on the batch processing service pages?
• Why isn't my data file validating?
• Are sample input files available?

Access files

A good upper bound on the size of Access databases (mdb or accdb) is 5 MB. If you upload a larger file, you may get an error when you try to download it because the file will be too large to be read into bytes and streamed to you. This is a security feature we have implemented so that no one other than you will ever be able to download your database, but can cause this error. Access files are also inheritently slower to process so it is highly recommended to break apart larger files into smaller chunks and run multiple processes in parallel. Each process will run at the same speed so two processes will complete in 1/2 the time, three in 1/3 the time, and so forth. (top)

The preferred file format is a CSV or text file with tab delimited being the best. Using this format will assure you of the fastest processing speed possible. (top)

You have to upload one or more databases to process before you can use the batch processing services. (top)

You have to validate your databases on the upload page before your databases will be visible on the batch processing pages. This ensures that we are able to open and read your data. (top)

This Microsoft Office page explains the basics of delimited text files. If you follow the guidelines listed for importing data into an Access database, your data should pass validation without any problems.

To avoid common mistakes, please ensure the following about your data files:

Rank	File type	Check
1	Text and CSV	Make sure that your first row contains column headings
2	Text and CSV	Make sure that your data values do not contain your separator character
3	Text, CSV, and Access databases (mdb, accdb)	Try not to use spaces in file names, table names, and/or column names Here are some pretty standard database guidelines
4	Access 97	Access 97 does not support the decimal datatype, so you will run into problems if/when you click on the auto generate button to create output fields in your database. Access 97 users will need to create the output fields before uploading databases for use in the batch processing.

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Yes. All services use the same file formats. For example input data files please review the geocoder input sample files and substitute the applicable fields for the service you wish to use. (top)