Hi,

If I have one big table in Mysql, how much data is TOO MUCH for that table (say I have a table of 10 fields and the table will probably contain 200+ records, and some fields contain long html codes)

and will using multiple table be better, faster than using 1 single table?

Thanks!

    and will using multiple table be better, faster than
    using 1 single table?

    You're asking the wrong questions. (To reassure you a bit, mysql can handle some pretty large tables.) Instead, worry about the inherent structure of your data. Then normalize your tables, provide indexes where appropriate, and have at it!

      • [deleted]

      How much is too much? a few Gigabytes for the "old" mysql, and a few hundred TeraBytes for the new mysql.

      Data storage limits are not your biggest worry.

      There is an article in the articles section taht describes "database normalization"
      That will help you understand why and how you can split up your tables (if there is a need for that at all in the first place).

      Remember, every time you split a table up, you'll have to join them back together in SQL, which is an "expensive" operation.

      What you need in the end is a database structure that you can work with.
      If that structure happens to be slightly slower than another setup, so be it.
      Better a "slow" database than a corrupted one :-)

        Well the only reason that would not be a good idea is if it doesn't follow database normalization otherwist it will be fine.

        Because, sometimes you will probalby want only some of that data, you wont want that big blob of text every call (maybe) so you just dont' select * you select only the things you want.

        But you don't have to worry about mysql getting upset only thing that would slow performace is drudging that text from the db when it isn't needed. You should be fine.

          Well said that man!!

          If there's one thing that annoys me, it's people telling me I should optimise a database when I've actually looked at it, decided that a 0.1 second performance gain doesn't warrant half an hour of messing around and decided to leave it to get on with something productive...

          The most optimised solution is not always the best solution, once you consider simplicity and set-up time.

          Rant over,

          Jamie.

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