Way to make columns exist, but not take up any space?

I was wondering, is it possible to preserve columns in a table and ensure that they don't take up any space? I am trying to avoid the situation where a table requires additional disk space because we have added columns that are not used (eg different customers, one requires the new columns, one does not). Obviously, the optimal solution is to put the new columns in a different table and access the new columns in a view. This solution has already been rejected. The solution I am looking for would allow existing code to write to the new columns, however, the table would be configured in such a way that the data would never be physicaly stored in the table or require any disk space. Is this possible in Informix? Can individual columns simply dump data out to /dev/null or some similar device? -- Rob Hale Software Designer - Nortel Network Services Management www http://www.nortel.com/broadband/dms/networks/ mailto:robert_hale@nortel-nsm.com | When in doubt, (604) 244 - 4255 | peddle like mad ! O /\\_` _4\\--\\_ //\\_\\//\\\\ ____\\_/_ `\\_/______