Which works better with ArcMap and big data, Access or Excel?

[JuliaGoldsworth]

I want to do spatial analysis with census data which can run to hundreds of thousands of rows and columns.

[AdrianWelsh]

Julia,

Last I remember, ArcMap limited Excel to something like 2048 lines. I would think any database would trump excel when talking about that much data. Might even be better to put it in a File Geodatabase, then analyze from there.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

and you will be using all the rows and columns all at once? This sounds like one of those trick questions given the limitations inherent to Excel let alone Access.

[JoeBorgione]

Hundreds of thousands rows, probably.  But hundreds of thousands columns?  Who ever built that database needs to re-take database-building 101.... 

[JuliaGoldsworth]

I guess I need to clarify the question.  I would like to work with the data ***BEFORE*** it goes into ArcMap.  I'd rather import 5,000 selected records rather than a mess of 150,000 records with several hundred unwanted attributes.

[JoeBorgione]

Personally, I would forget Excel as an option.  Access might be able to handle what you want to do; SLQ Server or SQlServer Express are options as well.

[ChrisSmith7]

I completely concur - don't even think about Excel (this isn't even a db), maybe consider Access for a second (just a second), but ultimately look at SQL... this is the way to go, hands-down.

[JuliaGoldsworth]

So if I want to delete 50 columns, better to do it with SQL (which I don't know) than with Access? 

[curtvprice]

Access should work fine unless you are getting well past 500,000 rows. There is an .mdb file size limit of 2.1 GB.

[NeilAyres]

I have used access as a data store with tables over 1mill rows. One has to be aware of the mdb file size limit as mentioned by Curtis.

But, create a new mdb, import one or more data tables into to it.

Then build a make table query and add only those fields you need. That way, you still have all the original data, and you have some data you can use in ArcMap.