How large can an XML file be?

How large can an XML file be?

Can I use one file for a huge datadocument or do I need to split it up into separate XML files? You know how Notepad won't open documents that are larger than like 32000 lines or something -- is there any complications with large files like this as IE reads them?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

bump?

I read in somewhere, that XML files should not be too large or it will get freezed up from the loading. Probably its common sense not to dump all into one single XML file, but then again, using multiple XML files to store different sections of data, would it work?

Good point, thanks.

The only real size limit is the one imposed by your operating system. This is likely to be 2GB (that's a common value). As for practical considerations, though, there's almost nothing you could do with a 2GB XML document that wouldn't take a day and month to finish. Go for the smaller files.

Just to back other's comments.. indeed, the XML file shouldn't be too big, and an xml file as big as 2GB would be poor DB design

Nah, practically, I've made some test with a 20MB xml file (the rom information of games supported by mame, if you're into emulation ), created a basic XSL for it too, and, well, IE takes its time to open it on my P4 2.8 with 1GB of ram.

So the answer is well to use smaller files, and to make sure that file organisation is part of planning your DB design.

I guess that with time, xml parsers will get better at managing bigger files.

Thanks guys. Because of what you said, I guess I'll use MySQL or Access for any really big databases I might need. I just liked the structure of XML b/c it is hierarchial(sp?) and easy to organize.

Sorry that I did not answer sooner, but I had no computer for a long time :-(

-Matt