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ned456
Starting Member
2 Posts |
 Posted - 2008-06-01 : 16:31:23
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| Hi everyone - I am relatively new to this and trying to make my database as efficient as possible. Here is the situation. In my database, there are multiple "stocks" that each have a "pricing history". When something happens that changes the price of the stock, an entry containing information about the time the change occured, who changed it, etc. is added.I have many stocks. The information of these stocks is independant in the sense that I never really need to grab/compare information about two stocks at once. I only look at one stock at a time. So, do I set up a "pricing history" table for every single stock (pricinghist1,pricinghist2,etc.)? Or do I set up one "pricing history" table it and index the table by stock number?Are these equivilant? Is one more efficient than the other?Thanks!N |
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jezemine
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2886 Posts |
Posted - 2008-06-01 : 18:00:39
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definitely use one table for all stocks, not one table per stock. index the stockid column and create a FK back to the main stock table (assuming you have one).if you find you need to add tables to your database in the normal course of operation, that is a good indicator of a bad design.
elsasoft.org |
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ned456
Starting Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 2008-06-01 : 20:30:22
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| Hi jezemine - Thanks for the reply...that was my suspicion.One question - what is "FK" and what is it used for?That question probably marks me as a true newbie.Thanks again,N |
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visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder
52326 Posts |
Posted - 2008-06-02 : 00:39:26
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quote:
Originally posted by ned456
Hi jezemine - Thanks for the reply...that was my suspicion.One question - what is "FK" and what is it used for?That question probably marks me as a true newbie.Thanks again,N
FK is abbreviation for foreign key constraint. Its a way of enforcing referential integrity between two tables. To make sure one field of a table contains only values that correspond to another table field, we define a foreign key on our table referring to source table. Whenever we are performing insert/updation of value in this field, the constraint ensures the value inserted/updated is a valid value existing within the source table field. Suggest you to go through explanation of Foreign key in books online.[url]http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175464.aspx[/url] |
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Do I use an index in this situation?