Are redundant fields ever appropriate?

From: Eel <eel_at_javabox.com>
Date: 7 Nov 2001 18:12:01 -0800
Message-ID: <a62a408.0111071812.14f9b2cf@posting.google.com>

Hi,
I know this is a pretty basic question, but I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. If I have a few tables like:

InvoiceHeader:
Invoice#
Customer#
Job#
Date

InvoiceLines:
Invoice#
Part#
Quantity
Price

Say I wanted to make sorted lookups faster and wasn't much worried about update speed. Would it ever be appropriate to have a table like:

InvoiceLines:
Invoice#
Part#
Quantity
Price
Customer#

The reason I'd want to do it would be to make reporting for line items by customer# faster. Is this something I'd ever want to do? Am I asking for trouble if I do it?

Thanks! Received on Wed Nov 07 2001 - 20:12:01 CST