Table with all computed columns -vs- View (Pros-Cons)

  • I plan to do some testing on this (if I can find the time) but thought I would post the question to those who know better.

    There is a view with 20 fields 17 of those are populated from Scalar-valued Functions, total record count about 800k, select all can take over 2 minutes.

    Can / should this be replaced with a table that has 17 computed columns ?

  • first of all, are these functions deterministic? how many times do you use the view ? do you reference any of these functions in the where clause?

    personally i've used persisted computed columns for things like stock_value=stock_qty*price type scenarios and it works brilliantly

     

    MVDBA

  • Should this be replaced with a table that has 17 computed columns ?

    Yes, if a computed column would work, then that is what you should use rather than a function.

    Can this be replaced with a table that has 17 computed columns ?

    Unsure.  If the columns are computed using only columns from that same row, you should be able to use computed columns.  A computed column cannot reference any data in a different row(s).

    SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear." "Norm", on "Cheers". Also from "Cheers", from "Carla": "You need to know 3 things about Tortelli men: Tortelli men draw women like flies; Tortelli men treat women like flies; Tortelli men's brains are in their flies".

  • I expected it would be a simple answer (foolish, I know).

    So here is an example of what I have to work with.

    An example of a view where all the functions pull individual answers from an answers table based on parameters provided to the function. (I know...)

    CREATE OR ALTER VIEW [dbo].[slv_CaseData]

    AS

    SELECT

    cas.CasMachineID,

    cas.CasID,

    cas.SGrpMachineID,

    cas.SGrpID,

    cas.ClientMachineID,

    cas.ClientID,

    MLT =dbo.ccudf_AnswerTableValue(cas.CasMachineID, cas.CasID, '000-002', 'Code'),

    DocType =dbo.ccudf_AnswerTableValue(cas.CasMachineID, cas.CasID, '000-004', 'Disc'),

    LoanNbr =dbo.ccudf_AnswerAlpha(cas.CasMachineID, cas.CasID, 'LOAN#')

    FROM Case cas

    WHERE cas.StsRdy<>4

    AND cas.sts NOT IN ('@','&')

    GO

    I had imagined that the computed columns could be constructed to use the same functions.

    I've just completed some prelim. testing and this seems to work.

    SELECT TOP 1000

    cas.CasMachineID,

    cas.CasID,

    cas.SGrpMachineID,

    cas.SGrpID,

    cas.ClientMachineID,

    cas.ClientID

    INTO dbo.ctest

    FROM Case cas

    WHERE cas.StsRdy<>4 AND cas.sts NOT IN ('@','&')

    GO

    SELECT * FROM dbo.ctest

    GO

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    ALTER TABLE dbo.ctest

    ADD MLT AS dbo.sludf_AnswerTableValue(CasMachineID, CasID, '000-002', 'Code')

    GO

    ALTER TABLE dbo.ctest

    ADD DocType AS dbo.sludf_AnswerTableValue(CasMachineID, CasID, '000-004', 'Code')

    GO

    ALTER TABLE dbo.ctest

    ADD LoanNbr AS dbo.sludf_AnswerAlpha(CasMachineID, CasID, 'LOAN#')

    GO

    SELECT * FROM dbo.ctest AS c

    GO

  • you're still executing the function once per row

    you should persist the data

    ALTER TABLE dbo.ctest

    ADD MLT AS dbo.sludf_AnswerTableValue(CasMachineID, CasID, '000-002', 'Code') PERSISTED

    this means it is stored and not recalculated on each read - it recalculates based on when the data is changed

    MVDBA

  • Thanks , that's great...

    How does it know when data has changed?  Does Change Tracking need to be enabled?

  • Budd wrote:

    Thanks , that's great...

    How does it know when data has changed?  Does Change Tracking need to be enabled?

    no need to enable change tracking - think of it more like an invisible trigger that is under the hood. (that's not exactly correct) - you are limited to what you can use though, pretty much you can only use the table you are working on.. I've had occasions where I've had to strip out the barebones of a function and put it in the computed column

    here is an example of where we had a function before and replaced it with persisted computed columns

    alter table x add

    [customer_code_int] AS (CASE WHEN NOT [customer_code] LIKE '%[A-Z]%' AND NOT [customer_code] LIKE '%-%' AND [customer_code]<>'' AND NOT [customer_code] LIKE '%?%' AND NOT ([customer_code]='"' OR [customer_code]='.') AND LEN([customer_code])<=(19) AND NOT [customer_code] LIKE '%/%' AND NOT [customer_code] LIKE '% %' AND [account_code]='mcdonalds' THEN CONVERT([BIGINT],LTRIM(RTRIM([customer_code]))) END) PERSISTED

    alter table x add

    [IsAddressClean] AS (CASE WHEN CHARINDEX(CHAR((13)),((((([organisation]+[address1])+[address2])+[address3])+[town])+[county])+[postcode])>(0) OR CHARINDEX(CHAR((10)),((((([organisation]+[address1])+[address2])+[address3])+[town])+[county])+[postcode])>(0) THEN (1) ELSE (0) END) PERSISTED NOT NULL

    this is where it really works well

    MVDBA

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