RE: Check Constraint or Foreign Key Constraint

I agree that a relational approach is easier to manage. However I would check performance of an FK versus a check constraint. Although with only 23 values, and if the values are small, it's merely pegging a single page in memory and should be fairly rapid with an FK as well. j. -----Original Message----- From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org]On Behalf Of Colin Dawson Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 6:35 AM To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: Check Constraint or Foreign Key Constraint I'm canvassing opinion on this. A table with millions of rows has a check constraint with 23 values in it. I have suggested that a reference table is used instead. Is it better for performance to use a Check Constraint and occasionally have maintenance if a new value is required than have easier management of the data and a FK index. My preference is to use a reference table. Regards Colin There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't _________________________________________________________________ Get Hotmail, News, Sport and Entertainment from MSN on your mobile. http://www.msn.txt4content.com/ _______________________________________________ Informix-list mailing list Informix-list@iiug.org http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list