Monday, March 12, 2012

optimal database design

What is more efficient for a database design - a lot of tables with only a few records or a few tables with lots of records.

I'm starting a new site and each user will have numerous records but I'm not sure whether to have a few very large tables (over 100,000 rows) or start a new table for each user which would result in approx 1500 tables most of which would be the same table design with different rows.

I'm using SQL2000.

I guess this is quite a basic question, but I'm a bit unsure.

Any references anyone could point me too as well.

ThxThe number of rows is dependent upon a lot of things. The number of COLUMNS per row is more likely indicitive of good design. I would never create a new table for each user. That is why there are indexes.

This is an excellent book on Database Design:

Designing Effective Database Systems
By Rebecca M. Riordan.
Published by Addison Wesley Professional.

http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321290933|||I agree with Douglas. From a reporting and maintenance standpoint, fewer tables will be much better. Implementing a different set of tables for each user will lead to many, many problems down the road.|||I had the same doubts and I was told to read about Database Normalization. It could help you too

No comments:

Post a Comment