Re: database design best pratice help

Jose Soares wrote:
> I have a question about database design best pratice.
>
> In my db I have about one hundred tables like this:
>
> code
> description
>
> To avoid to have a so great number of similar tables in the db
> I wonder if it is a good idea to unify all these tables in one big table
> like this:
>
> id
> code
> table_ name
> description
>
> The advantages are:
>
> 1. only one table in the db instead of 100
> 2. only one controller to manage the table
>
> Could this be a way to enhance db performance?
> Is there any negative point that I don't see?

If the resulting table grows to be big, that might be
a problem. Imagine that a query has to do a sequential scan
for a certain query.

Also, are there no foreign key constraints between tables?
If no, the design is questionable. If yes, how would you
handle them?

I guess it depends on what your application does, but I
wouldn't merge the tables. One hundred tables are not so
terribly many.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe