Performance question - multiple Number or one String field ??

I am writing a system that needs to store potentialy millions of 'Codes'. Each code has 20 elements where each element is represented by a long integer. As I see it, the two ways of storing this are either,

1. 20 seperate number(5) columns.
2. One 100 byte string column.

Given the massive size of the table which would be the quickest structure for lookups of single codes ??. My feeling is the string field would be quicker as it allows hashing ??

Thanks in advance,

Matt. Received on Tue Mar 23 1999 - 15:57:57 CST