Re: Big Tables vs. many Tables vs. many Databases

On Thursday 19 February 2004 00:44, Dirk Olbertz wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I'm currently about to redesign a database which you could compare with a
> database for managing a library. Now this solution will not only manage one
> library, but 100 to 500 of them. Currently, eg. all the data about the
> inventory (books) is held in one table for all the libraries.
>
> Is it useful to spread this to one table for each library, by eg. giving it
> an id as a postfix?
[snip]

Uwe's raised some points about reliability - I'd suggest looking at how you
want to use the data.

You might want to look at multiple databases, but probably not multiple
tables. With multiple databases, you could backup/restore individual client's
data.

On the other hand, if you want to view data across multiple "libraries" then
one large table in one database is useful.

Also think about how you will make changes to the structure of your
database(s) - how much effort will it be to add a column in each case?

--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd