Re: Using bitwise operator vs. mapping table

Brian,

> They aren't terrible today and I suspect there is some low hanging
> optimization that could be collected by a real DBA. However, we're
> growing and our users run quite a lot of reports which already do 5 or
> 6-way joins.

Do you expect that the number of joins would actually increase, though?

> Are there any benefits other than speed in the denormalized approach?

No, so you only want to do it if you have a real performance problem which
you've already tried to solve other ways.

If you want the "rollup" view of the attributes table, you can always create a
custom aggregate which displays a list.

> Once I get through this PCI DSS effort I may hire someone to get that
> low-hanging fruit but I am trying to keep this other dev work moving
> forward in the mean time.

Good idea.

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL @ Sun
San Francisco