How many columns are too many for a SQL Server 2005 table?

Question

I have a request to allow a dynamic table to have 1000 columns(randomly selected by my end users). This seems like a bad idea to me. It\'s a customizable table so it will

Answer 1

Whenever you feel the need to ask what limits the system has, you have a design problem.

If you were asking "How many characters can I fit into a varchar?" then you shouldn't be using varchars at all.

If you seriously want to know if 1000 columns is okay, then you desperately need to reorganize the data. (normalization)