Next tables vs large varchar2 to hold info

My application leads it's self well to a nexted table, but I'm not sure about the performance of such as solution compared to a simple varchar containing a semi-colon formated string that my application could parse to search for specific object types.

The nested table is good if the number of object is large, but I can have a limit of say 32. Each object will be a varchar2(32) holding a user name, and a char(2) containing a coded information about this user. Each record in my table could have 0..32 of these types, hence my conclusion to use a nested table.

Any comments.

Also, what is wrong with the following :

create or replace type dependent_t (
 permission char not null,
 name varchar(2) not null
);

rem
rem dependent_list is a nested table definition rem
create or replace type dependent_list as table of dependent_t;

create or replace type user as object ( (
 id NUMBER NOT NULL,
 name VARCHAR2(32) NULL,
 mylist dependent_list
);

create table peterpan of user
 nested table mylist store as listv8
 TABLESPACE "SYSTEM" ; I get compilation error at the first creat type.

Thanks,
Bill Received on Mon Jun 14 1999 - 19:46:29 CDT