From: Michael Widenius Date: April 6 1999 9:27am Subject: Split up tables to achieve fixed-size records? List-Archive: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql/1444 Message-Id: <14089.54084.943326.810629@analytik.analytikerna.se> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >>>>> "Matthias" == Matthias Pigulla writes: Matthias> Hi folks, Matthias> I'm trying to design a MySQL database to be accessible as performant as Matthias> possible. Matthias> Core of the system is a table to store plain texts, among other data Matthias> consisting of a headline and a body. All data except the body can be Matthias> arranged to have a fixed size. Matthias> Now, I'm unsure wheter to put all the data into one table, causing Matthias> variable length records, or wheter to have a separate table for the Matthias> bodies and a "fixed record size" table for the other stuff? Matthias> Whenever I want to retrieve a text, I would have to join both tables. Matthias> The text pool will become fairly large, but SELECTS with text bodies Matthias> will always get only one text via an unique ID. Matthias> I then have a second type of selects, retrieving only headlines, ordered Matthias> by a timestamp (ie the latest n headlines). Matthias> Would my database - especially the second query type - benefit from Matthias> fixed size records? Hi! It's very likely that using two tables is the best choise in this case. You can always try both methods; First design everything with 2 tables and after this create a 'total' table with INSERT INTO total_table SELECT * from table1,table2 WHERE ... Regards, Monty