Re: Database Design Efficiency Question

In <1992Jan27.183813.25986_at_cbnewsd.att.com> elel_at_cbnewsd.att.com (eric.edberg) writes:

>My question relates to space efficiency and how to design a
>table so that many fields can be created, but the fields that
>are not populated during run-time applications do NOT use space
>in the database.
 

>My question is simple:
 

> Is there a mechanism whereby I can define field(s)
> in the table that have their space dynamically allocated
> by oracle during a ProC insert ?
>
> The fields have two data types: a) character arrays
> and b) long int's.
>
> I suspect that this is possible with character array
> type info, but not for long int's.
>
>Thanx,

I assume you mean that the data-containing fields will be distributed about in each record. If not, be aware that any trailing NULL fields do not take updatabase space. So if you have 50 fields order them from first most used to least most used and that alone can save a bit of space.

-- 
Tom Myers, Programmer/Analyst				Email: t-myers_at_nwu.edu
Reingold ECG Center - Northwestern University