I agree with Tom. Personally I cannot think of a time I would use an array column over a child table. Maybe someone can enlighten me on when an array column would be a good choice.
What language are you using to do the export if I may ask?
"Phillip Smith" <phillips@weatherbeeta.com.au> writes: > The whole sys file is variable length records like this - they range = > from 1 > to over 17,000 fields per record.
17000? I think you really need to rethink your schema. While you could theoretically drop 17000 elements into a PG array column, you wouldn't like the performance --- it'd be almost unsearchable for instance.
I'd think about two tables, one with a single row for each SYS record from the original, and one with one row for each detail item (the invoice numbers in this case). With suitable indexes and a foreign key constraint, this will perform a lot better than an array-based translation.
And no, in neither case will you be able to import that file without massaging it first.
