Re: Database performance and size

markp10013_at_aol.com (MarkP10013) wrote:

>I was wondering if someone could shed some light on this debate;
>Some people I've talked with think that the performance of a database will
>be
>affected as the number of rows in the tables grow. Others say that
>performance
>won't be affected at all no matter how large the database gets. Which
>opinion is true? I know this sounds trivial, but it's seem to be one of
>those questions that tests theory and real world experiences.

Of course it will affect performance. A large table without indexes is provably less efficient, on a linear/sequential basis, than one with indexes. In v6 Oracle, b-trees using binary search algorithms (std. comp sci class theory here) are used, I believe. In v7 Oracle, I believe there are some options for hashing for such searches.

Personally, I've experienced a table that was improperly or totally unindexes. Performance improved drastically. I found the response to the users in the forms went down from 5-10 seconds for an insert/update in an indexed table to less than a secon, after getting a good balance of indexes (simplification generally.)

I'm sure some of my facts are off. But hopefully someone else will add to the above or correct.

--Stuart Received on Thu Dec 21 1995 - 00:00:00 CET