[dba-SQLServer] Is it faster to...

Mark Breen marklbreen at gmail.com
Mon Jun 21 07:30:39 CDT 2010


Hello John,

Two things come to mind,

a) my initial temptation is to switch this column to a Bit datatype. That
must be the smallest.

b) I know that indexes on Binary Values do not help, and I suppose that
indexes on char fields where in effect they are binary, (T or Space),
probably do not help also.  There is no range to index.

So does that suggest you can switch to Bit, and gain a reduction in storage,
but regardless, your indexes will not help?  Does it even imply that you
would be better dropping the index on that column?

Seeing as you are the only one in these parts with this kind of firing
power, you measure it and you tell us little guys what results you get :)

Mark







On 21 June 2010 13:12, jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote:

> My "database from hell" has values in columns of 'T' and space, 'T' where
> the value is "true" and
> space where the value is false.
>
> Would it be useful to replace the spaces with nulls.  Would it be an actual
> space savings?  Smaller
> indexes?  Faster compares?
> --
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
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