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To be fair, the “correct way” to do databases at that time was to use third normal form. Putting indices on string columns would have been considered a hack, mu
by Jolter 5y ago
To be fair, the “correct way” to do databases at that time was to use third normal form. Putting indices on string columns would have been considered a hack, much like using MySQL was.
- mst 5y agoPlenty of databases at the time had pretty lame string indexing because it simply wasn't something people relied on if they wanted performance, and memory sayeth mysql's were both not particularly efficient and had some nasty technical limitations. On the mysql she was using, breaking things out so it only needed to index ints was almost certainly a much better idea. On anything I'd be deploying to today, I'd start by throwing a compound index at the thing with the expectation that'd probably get me to Good Enough.
- int_19h 5y ago3NF is largely orthogonal to indices on string columns, though. If you need to look something up by string fast, there's no avoiding an index of strings somewhere.
- jhgb 5y agoWhen has ever been putting indices on string columns "a hack"? If you're looking for that string, which seems to have been the case here in particular, you need that index.