Re: Database design question

Neil Truby wrote: > > I have a table on a bought-in application with about 350,000 rows. It > has a column defined as an index, but in fact the column contains > contains nothing for any row. Therefore every one of the 350,000 rows > has the same index value, which is clearly undesireable. However, what > the design is clearly meant to achieve is fast selection of a single row > when the column has a non-null value. > Your assuming that the design of the table and indexes is a good one - DON'T! Some of the best people have designed in things that make no sense. If you ask them about it they will usually admit it (and maybe remove it). On the other hand, this may have been a feature to someone else and you just don't use the database that way. Maybe you can just drop the index. In any event, talk to whoever you bought the package from. You need more informition.