Putting all your data in one column of one table

  • Best not to stir up the hornets. I really does not matter anyway. This methodology would propably fail regardless of the actual application.

  • michael.welcome (5/9/2008)


    This is not a joke.

    I have my doubts this was not a joke.

    _____________________________________
    Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

    Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

    Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.
  • MD (5/9/2008)


    Agree with others here. Of course, this is a good way to ensure job security as someone will have to clean this mess in the future

    Don't get much job security at a soon to be defunct company.

  • About three times I worked where and end user wanted to put added significance in the data; "If the code starts with an 'A' it means this, but a 'B' will mean that..."

    I always suggested they just use Notepad.exe

  • You should have suggested simplifying the design further by storing all the data in a single row and column of a single table. Obviously, XML would be ideal for this.

  • Personally I love the OP's original design statement!! And no, I am not laughing here. The more situations like this in existence (and there are LOTs of similar or equally bad things out there) the more work there is for the likes of me! Hmm, I guess that means I AM laughing - all the way to the bank! 😀

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

  • michael.welcome (9/3/2009)


    Update:

    The project was a huge failure as I expected.

    It was so convoluted that the required functionality was never able to be implimented. Most screens never worked as expected even after three years of development. The performance was horrible, with some screens taking minutes to come up. After millions and millions of $s were spent the project is now "On Hold" indefinitely.

    The manager that was in charge of this disaster is now "Currently Pursueing Other Oppertunities".

    That sounds bad, but it is probably the best possible outcome for that project.

    It would have been far worse if it actually made it into production.

  • Michael Valentine Jones (9/8/2009)


    You should have suggested simplifying the design further by storing all the data in a single row and column of a single table. Obviously, XML would be ideal for this.

    That would work for version 1 but it is not scalable... go for a single table / row / LOB column!!! 😀

    _____________________________________
    Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

    Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

    Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.
  • I know of a functioning production e commerce system which uses an EAV table to store order data...

    to generate a report for 72 orders took the poor computer 15 minutes of thrashing...then it timed out and aborted the job...

    Entity Framework couldn't cope...a piece of T-SQL later - report generates in 2 seconds... 😀

    I had a look at the guts of the system and to my horror I saw that the EAV had empty values...

    It was done such that if an order had no value for a particular attribute an attribute row was still written to the database but with no value....:crazy:

    I have to maintain this system... 🙁

    Hiding under a desk from SSIS Implemenation Work :crazy:

  • I have to maintain this system...

    Better to have too much work than not enough though, right?? 🙂

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

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