proper use of array datatype - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Eric Andrews
Subject proper use of array datatype
Date
Msg-id 7a4707ef0608011158u14aa1408s6b918b2bc10ac3a9@mail.gmail.com
Whole thread Raw
Responses Re: proper use of array datatype  ("Nikolay Samokhvalov" <samokhvalov@gmail.com>)
Re: proper use of array datatype  (Erik Jones <erik@myemma.com>)
List pgsql-general
hello all,

I am not much of a schema designer and have a general questoin about
the proper use of the array datatype. In my example, I have
destinations, and destinations can have multiple boxes, and inside
those boxes are a set of contents. what I want to do is search and
basically "mine" data from the content sets. do I use an array
datatype for the content column, or is there a better more efficient
way to go about this?

From http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/arrays.html

Tip:  Arrays are not sets; searching for specific array elements may
be a sign of database misdesign. Consider using a separate table with
a row for each item that would be an array element. This will be
easier to search, and is likely to scale up better to large numbers of
elements.

thanks,
eric

pgsql-general by date:

Previous
From: Sundar Narayanaswamy
Date:
Subject: Re: Autovacuum help..
Next
From: "Joshua D. Drake"
Date:
Subject: Re: Can you run out of oids?