[PLUG] SQL DB structure question

Steve Bonds 1s7k8uhcd001 at sneakemail.com
Sat Jun 15 09:57:26 UTC 2002


The answer, as with most database performance questions, is "it depends".

If you are doing a lot of full table reads then the single larger table is
going to perform better.  If the accesses are indexed and fairly
randomized then the shorter tables can perform better.

The best answer is to try both and measure the performance given your
database software, your data access patterns, on your server.

Some databases provide the ability to simulate and/or test different
configurations.  (i.e. Oracle "EXPLAIN PLAN" and related commands.)

  -- Steve

On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Alex Daniloff alex at daniloff.com XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

> Hello Linux folkz,
> 
> Could somebody experienced in SQL DB answer this question.
> Assume that all tables in DB have the same number of columns e.g.10.
> What is better for DB performance to have few of bigger/longer tables 
> or lot of smaller/shorter tables?
> Thanks in advance for any responses.
> 
> Alex 
> 
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