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Posted by Erland Sommarskog on 02/18/06 00:46
Shwetabh (shwetabhgoel@gmail.com) writes:
> I am supposed to convert DBASE IV data to MS SQL server 2000 database.
> Now, there are about 40 DBASE tables each of which contains fields
> ranging from 3 to 30. Most of the fields hold either NULL values or
> redundant data. In all these tables and fields, there is only one common
> field "Partnum".
> Now earlier, this DBASE database was used by a labelling software
> "Easylabel". It used to retrieve the neccessary data using the field
> "Partnum". This software will connect to SQL server and retrieve the
> data when conversion process is complete.
>
> Now my dillema is that should I just create a database containing all
> the fields in a single table or should I try to create relationships
> among different data objects. If I put them in a single table, will the
> system take a performance hit when accessing data? If I create
> relationships, how can I retrieve the data from tables where information
> about new fields added by users without using select *..?
So you are saying that the application will largely be unchanged, only
the database will change? That puts quite some restriction on the work.
It would of course be nicer to work with a clean sheet and do it right.
Since I don't know the application, it is difficult to say "do this"
or "do that". But I think that you design a solution with maintainability
and extensibilty foremost in mind. I don't think one single table is
the answer to that aim. But, again, I don't know the business domain.
As for performance, what data volumes are we talking about?
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx
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