RE: what is wrong with this idea ...

Gene,

You would be denormalizing to hopefully improve performance. The only way to tell is to test and test some more. Personally I don't see how putting the info in the parent table with either method will improve things. I bet updates and inserts will take longer.

        "using a INSTR (or SUBSTR) command."

That will be slow. A function based index MIGHT help but I doubt it.

        "(the list of status codes is fairly static)"

If the status codes were chiseled in stone, I MIGHT consider doing something like that. But things always change and even 'stones' erode. Adding or even subtracting one status code could require updating a lot of forms, reports, and SQL statements each time.

>From a performance standpoint, it might be much better to tune what you already have.

Jerry Whittle
ACIFICS DBA
NCI Information Systems Inc.
jerome.whittle_at_scott.af.mil
618-622-4145

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gurelei [SMTP:gurelei_at_yahoo.com]
>
> Hi. We have a table in our data warehouse which keeps
> info about calls made. This table has a child table
> with some detailed information about parts of the
> call. There may be any number of "parts" within a call
> (1 to many) and every part has a status.
>
> MY developer wants to add a string field to the parent
> table which will concatinate all the statuses for
> all the parts within this call. For example if
> a call has 4 parts and their statuses are "A","B","A"
> and "F", the value of that field will be "ABFA". Then
> the developer will be able to query smalle parent
> table instead of a large child table in order to see
> how many calls had at least one part with status "A"
> or statuses "A" and "F" etc by using a INSTR (or
> SUBSTR) command.
>
> Would it be better (from performance/CPU standpoint)
> to add several separate fields: STATUS_A_CNT,
> STATUS_B_CNT (the list of status codes is fairly
> static) instead? There is something about this string
> that rubs me the wrong way, but I can't put my finger
> on it.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> thank you
>
> Gene

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