Re: 1600 Column limit.. - Mailing list pgsql-general

1) What is the "array datatype"?  I looked for this under data types and
didn't see it.

2) We have a huge amount of scripts that basically maintain the our
network as a whole.  They are wanting to start off by getting out of
using a 20 meg flat file because every time they do an update it takes
forever..  so we are trying to mimic what they have in the file.. then
in the future we can get them to change how their data is structured..
in their datafile they have it set up exactly like the db is.. lotsa
columns.. then they look for different trends in the data.. or they look
for specific values per shelf.. I understand how this could be done with
this information all together.. but getting them to do change thier
scripts is something else.. what I did was break it down into 3 seperate
tables.. with each piece of information in a different one..
Travis

-----Original Message-----
From: Tino Wildenhain [mailto:tino@wildenhain.de]
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 7:44 AM
To: Williams, Travis L, NPONS; Gavin M. Roy;
pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] 1600 Column limit..


Hi Williams,

--On Mittwoch, 13. November 2002 22:27 -0500 "Williams, Travis L, NPONS"

<tlw@att.com> wrote:

> we have to have all of that information per shelf.. so we have the
> columns with the information then each row is a different shelf..
which
> to start with there are 400.. which could grow to upwards to any
number..
> but I did split all of this up into seperate tables.. Travis

Seems you are a bit influenced by Makarenko ;)
To your problem: I see you have all these information
which appears to be in a row - but whats the use other
then the storage? How to find a special Slot and look
for its contents? If you would instead have some related
tables, the job is easy - all slots could be indexed.
Otherwise you could use 1 column and use the array datatype
as well. I dont know if there is a limit in the array datatype,
but I would not expect one.

Regards
Tino



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gavin M. Roy [mailto:gmr@justsportsusa.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 8:19 PM
> To: Williams, Travis L, NPONS; pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] 1600 Column limit..
>
>
> Seems like a more effective layout would be
>
> create table tracking (
>   i_slot int4,
>   i_port int4,
>   i_item int4 );
>
> maybe i'm missing somthing, but a 1600 row table is tiny, a 1600
column
> table would be very difficult to manage, and poor design.
>
> Gavin
>
> Williams, Travis L, NPONS wrote:
>
>> The reason we have that is we have 23 slots in a shelf (of equipment)
>> and we have 23 ports in a slot.  We are tracking 3 different items
per
>> port.. so we have 23 x 23 which is 529 x 3 which is 1587 individual
>> items to track of which they are all a single digit.  You add into
that
>> some misc. stuff like shelf name and poll_time and it becomes a
mess..
>> I just split them into 3 seperate tables.
>>
>> Travis
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Joe Tomcat [mailto:tomcat@mobile.mp]
>> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 1:35 PM
>> To: Williams, Travis L, NPONS
>> Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
>> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] 1600 Column limit..
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 2002-11-13 at 17:23, Williams, Travis L, NPONS wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Is this set in stone.. or is there somewhere you can change this..
and
>>>
>>>
>> will changing it cause upgrade problems in the future..
>>
>> If you are trying to have 1600 columns in a table, you probably have
>> made a design mistake in your table design.  You should take a look
at
>> some database design books to see if you can change the structure.
>>
>>
>>
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