Microsoft announced today that Large Number (BigInt) support is finally coming to Access 2016. This should allow users to import and link data with bigger numbers in it.
More specifically, the Large Number data type supports up to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807, which makes it a 64-bit integer. Interestingly, the new feature is also supported in 32-bit versions of the database management app, where previously they both only supported up to 2,147,483,647, otherwise known as a Long Integer.
Another thing that's worth noting is that if you choose to use the new data type, it will not be supported by earlier versions of Access. In other words, if you build your database with Large Numbers in Access 2016, you should make sure that no one who uses it will be using Access 2013.
The feature is already available to Office Insiders, so if you're an Office 365 subscriber, you can get it right now. Remember, it's not on the Production channel just yet, so you shouldn't distribute a database using Large Numbers until it is, because it won't even work in Access 2016.
