Re: Large amounts of text in tables

pontiphex_at_my-deja.com wrote in message <7lvpb7$eh4$1_at_nnrp1.deja.com>...
>I need to store large amounts of text in several columns of a table.
>Oracle8 has a limitation of only one 'LONG' per table. Whats the
>preffered method for storing large amounts of text in several columns of
>a table. Thanks.

Why do you need to do it in a single table? Ideally your LONGs should not be in the same table as in which "normal" data is stored. This simply causes additional and avoidable i/o overheads when accessing "normal" data. Even a better idea to dedicate separate tablespaces for such tables.

IOW, have multiple LONG tables each in its own tablespace and each with a reference to the original "normal data" table. E.g. USENET table contains date, author, newsgroup and a unique sequence. The USENET_HEADER table contains the unique sequence and a LONG for the article header. The USENET_BODY table contains the same unique sequence and a LONG for the article body.

If you really, really, need to have it as a single table - well, you can always then create a view across these LONG tables using a UNION ALL. Of course, this will still give you a single long per column, but all the data will be accessible via a single logical entity.

regards,
Billy Received on Thu Jul 08 1999 - 07:49:57 CDT