RE: Scroll cursor vs ROWID array

In article <4jp78d$dvk@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu>, hwigoda@mcs.com ("Hal Wigoda") wrote: > >A collegue of mine asked me what was the advantage in using a scroll >cursaor versus using an array of rowid in building a query. A scroll cursor can deal with zillions of rows -- an array has a finite limit on it's size. Rowid's may cause problems on 7.x engines, where it's possible that they may not be unique. A scroll cursor takes less code to implement! The array option might actually perform better though -- Informix wouldn't rush off and build a big ugly temporary table like it seems to enjoy doing with a SCROLL CURSOR. Summary: Big tables would likely perform better with the ARRAY approach, but you'd have to have a HUGE array to cope with the maximum number of rows in your table. I don't think it'd be worth the effort for little tables. Regards, Kerry S ------------------------------------,------------------------------------------ Kerry Sainsbury, kerry@kcbbs.gen.nz | THE INFORMIX FAQ v2.4 Oct 95 Quanta Systems, Auckland | http://www.iiug.org/techinfo/faq/ New Zealand. Work: +64 9 377-4473 | ftp://ftp.iiug.org/pub/informix/faq Home: +64 9 279-3571 | ftp://kcbbs.gen.nz:/pub/informix/