Oracle-L: Re: Name/Value pairs pros and cons

From: <Jared.Still_at_radisys.com>
Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2002 12:03:41 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.00492C4F.20020709120341@fatcity.com>

How about "Query performance will suck" ?

Jared

"Young, Jeff A." <jayoung_at_trilegiant.com> Sent by: root_at_fatcity.com
07/09/2002 09:38 AM
Please respond to ORACLE-L

        To:     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
        cc: 
        Subject:        Name/Value pairs pros and cons

Hi all.

I am in the midst of designing an ERD for a usage system. The management would like to use name/value pairs to store the data since that would be the
most flexible. While I agree that it would be the most flexible on the surface, I am concerned that it might not be a good idea. It is not clear at this point whether this data will be needed for an OLTP solution. The most pertinent use of this info at this point is for reporting.

Cons.
1. You have to select more records to get 1 'row' of data since a name/value record would only hold 1 piece of data. Queries to mine the data
would be more complicated.
2. No meta-data. So, a zip_code could end up being alpha-numeric and 57 characters long.
3. Can't put on foreign keys.
4. Possible performance issues since more inserts have to be done to get a
'row' of data committed.

Could you provide more cons (and pros) to using name/value pairs? Any good
resources on the web I might look at? I've poked around out on the web, but
didn't have much luck. Thanks.

Jeff
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Author: Young, Jeff A. INET: jayoung_at_trilegiant.com

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