RE: long raw risk

The reason that vendors often use LONG RAW is that that datatype meets the ANSI SQL standard, while BLOB doesn't. That way, they can use the same DDL against most SQL databases. Sometimes you can modify the vendor's DDL before or during installation. Sometimes you can re-create a table right after installation, as long as the columns have the same name and a compatible datatype (and BLOB is somewhat compatible with LONG RAW) - but I'd test this thoroughly before I'd go production.

There is a performance risk, but it can be minimized, especially if your vendor lets you change what tablespace will be used for the table and its indexes. I'd put it in a tablespace away from the rest of the tables.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 1:30 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Group,

I have just been given a project / database where a vendor will implement a table
with a LONG RAW field in it.

Oracle manuals state clearly that this datatype is outdated and should be replaced by BLOB, I quoted the manuals to vendor-support, but they will not move on this.

>From the looks of it, the table with the LR field
will become the largest table in the system, with well over a billion records in it after the 1st yr.

My main worry is inefficiency in retrieving records from the table, and most importantly, I cannot partition a table with long/longraw columns in it.

On first tests, the LRs are >1K, whereas the record-without-LR is avg 66 bytes.
In real-life, the LR is probably bigger still.

Quesions:

• Is there a real performance-risk ? Up to now, I always managed to offload LONG/BLOBs into separate tables or into LOB-storage clauses, but I see now way to do that here.
• Given the LongRaw datatype, what are my best defences against (potential) performance problems.

Anyone been-there-done-that ?

Regards,

PdV

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: John Flack
  INET: JohnF_at_smdi.com

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).