Verifying Consistent Definitions of Identically Named Fields Across Microsoft Access Tables

A fundamental Best Practice of database design is to make sure identically named fields represent the same data and are defined the same way (same data type and data size).

Assuming you want to do this, it's important to verify identically named fields are defined the same way. Failure to do this may cause data loss (truncated data) as information moves from one table to another, or inconsistent search results.

For instance, a FirstName text field should always be the same length anywhere it's defined. Not 30 characters in one table and 50 in another. Similarly, a numeric CustomerID field should not be an Integer in one table, a Long Integer in another, and a Double in another.