Re: Do columns with Null data take up space?

Doug wrote:

> If I create a table with 250 columns, and only fill 8, do the other
> columns take up space? (My user wants to log tests. There can be as
> many at 250 tests in a set, but normally only about 8. My user wants
> one record per set so he can run some third party analytical software
> against the test results.) Is Oracle 8i smart enough to compress the
> null values down so they don't take up space if they are unused?

There is nothing to compress. Null is null. There may be one or two byte overhead but of bigger concern is a table with 250 columns. That has all of the appearance of a very bad design.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)