variables size limitations

I am pretty new to VB.net and actually programming in general. I am a geneticist with some background in webdesign and basic (very basic) C++ and am making an application for organizing gene sequence and other misc data. I've made a simple database application that will load a database and let an user update data by entering it into a text field. I understand that access databases have a 255 character limit for text fields. Is there a way to get around that?

If not, I plan to save long text data in a txt file and just store the path to that txt file in the corresponding table field. But I will need to manipulate the text in the txt file. What are size limitations for String variables? Would storing the entire text from the txt file in a variable be a good way to manipulate the text or is there a better way to do it? Would I be able to do that with a readstream or something similar?

Just as some extra info. The data I am storing is about 10,000 characters or more long. The characters only consist of 'A' 'G' 'T' and 'C's with no spaces. I mainly just need to be able to search within the text and be able to highlight certain fragments or change the color of certain fragments in a rich text box control.

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Scott Lysle19y ago
Use the memo field type instead of text; it will handle up to 65,536 characters. Text fields are limited to 255 and default to 50 chars. One point of caution is that with either text or memo fields, sorts are based only on the first 255 characters of either type.