Is it possible to create a database/table/view alias? - teradata

Let's say there is a database owned by someone else called theirdb with a very slow view named slowview. I have an app that queries this view regularly, but, because it takes too long, I want to materialize it to a table within a database that I own (mydb.materializedview).
Is there a way in Teradata to create an alias database object so that I can go like select * from theirdb.slowview, but actually be selecting from mydb.materializedview?
I need to do some rigorous testing against their view, but it's so slow that I hardly have time to test anything. The other option is to edit the code so that it reads from mydb.materializedview, but that is, unfortunately, not an option in this particular case.

Teradata does not allow for you to create aliases or symbolic links between objects.
If the object is fully qualified by database name and view name in the application your options are a little more restricted. You have have to create a backup of their view definition and them place your materialized table in the same database. This would obviously be best done during a planned application outage.
If the object is not fully qualified by database name and view name in the application and relies on a default database setting or application variable you have a little more flexibility. If all the work is done at a view level you can duplicate the environment in another database where you plan to have a materialized version of their slowview. Then by changing the users default database or application variable you can point it at the duplicate environment to complete your testing.
Additionally, you can try to cover (partially or fully) the query that makes up the slowview by using a join index. This allows you to leave the codebase as it is in the application but for queries that can be satisfied by the join index the optimizer will use the join index. Keep in mind that a join index does incur a cost as it is in essence a materialized version of the SQL which was used to construct it. This means additional IO and change management issues have to be taken in to account.
Lastly, you could try to create additional secondary or hash indexes on the objects within the slowview to improve it's performance.

Related

Creating SQite-tables while running a program

I have seen several members on this forum warn about creating tables in a database while the app is running. Instead it is encouraged to create the tables while programming, and only fill the tables with data during runtime.
E.g while creating a note-app it would be convenient to let the user specify a name for a single note, and let this note be created as a table in a database. This by creating the table at the time the user creates the note, and letting the name of the note be the name of the table. Why would this be a bad practise? Have I misunderstood?
It would be highly inconvenient for both you and the user of such an app to create a table for every note the user might want to add. It's just not the way it works. A table should contain rows of information of the same type, such as a note for example, and each note should be added as a row/record in the said table. The table should be called notes for example, and if you want a name for each note, it can be a column in the notes table called name.
An analogy would be, if you are taking notes manually (without an electronic device that is), would you have one notebook with you and just add notes on different pages as you need to, or would you carry around a bag full of notebooks so that whenever you want to add a new note, you would add each note in a separate notebook?
The notebooks being equivalent to database tables in this analogy, and the pages of the said notebook being equivalent to rows in a database table.
I can't think of a reason for creating tables during runtime really. The database structure should be "set in stone" so to speak, and during runtime you should only manipulate the data in the database, which is adding, deleting, or updating rows/records in already existing tables. Creating tables during runtime is a big no-no.
I probably don't understand your question correctly, but it seems to me, that what you really want to do is to create a new row in a table I the database?

Reorganise Stored Procedures display in SQL Server Management Studio

I'm currently working with an Asp.NET web application which involves a lot of stored procedures.
Since I'm also using the Asp.NET Membership/Roles/Profile system, the list of stored procedures displayed in the Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio is really becoming something of a pest to navigate. As soon as I open the Programmability/Stored Procedures tree, I have a long list of dbo.aspnet_spXXX stored procedures with my procedures loitering at the end.
What I would like to do is shuffle all those aspnet stored procedures into a folder of their own, leaving mine floating loose as they are now. I don't want to dispense with the current organisation, I just want to refine it a little.
Is it possible to do this?
I think the best you can do in SSMS is to use a filter to exclude the aspnet stored procedures.
Right click the Stored Procedures folder
Select Filter -> Filter Settings
Filter by Name, Does not contain, 'aspnet_sp'.
I would recommend redgate's SQL search tool - handy for finding a particular proc, rather than scrolling through a large list. Allows you to double click and go to it:
http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-search/
Management Studio doesn't support the ability to sort these objects other than alphabetically.
I like the filter and 3rd party add-in ideas, but another idea you can explore is using a different schema for your objects. If you name the schema 'abc' or something more logical, they will always sort first and none of your users will have to apply the filter.
CREATE SCHEMA abc AUTHORIZATION dbo;
GO
ALTER SCHEMA abc TRANSFER dbo.proc1;
ALTER SCHEMA abc TRANSFER dbo.proc2;
ALTER SCHEMA abc TRANSFER dbo.proc3;
...
Of course you will need to update your code to reference this schema and you should also change all of your users' default schema.
This isn't really one of the primary purposes of schemas, but short of putting your objects in a different database, this is one way to visually separate them.

How can i improve the performance of the SQLite database?

Background: I am using SQLite database in my flex application. Size of the database is 4 MB and have 5 tables which are
table 1 have 2500 records
table 2 have 8700 records
table 3 have 3000 records
table 4 have 5000 records
table 5 have 2000 records.
Problem: Whenever I run a select query on any table, it takes around (approx 50 seconds) to fetch data from database tables. This has made the application quite slow and unresponsive while it fetches the data from the table.
How can i improve the performance of the SQLite database so that the time taken to fetch the data from the tables is reduced?
Thanks
As I tell you in a comment, without knowing what structures your database consists of, and what queries you run against the data, there is nothing we can infer suggesting why your queries take much time.
However here is an interesting reading about indexes : Use the index, Luke!. It tells you what an index is, how you should design your indexes and what benefits you can harvest.
Also, if you can post the queries and the table schemas and cardinalities (not the contents) maybe it could help.
Are you using asynchronous or synchronous execution modes? The difference between them is that asynchronous execution runs in the background while your application continues to run. Your application will then have to listen for a dispatched event and then carry out any subsequent operations. In synchronous mode, however, the user will not be able to interact with the application until the database operation is complete since those operations run in the same execution sequence as the application. Synchronous mode is conceptually simpler to implement, but asynchronous mode will yield better usability.
The first time SQLStatement.execute() on a SQLStatement instance, the statement is prepared automatically before executing. Subsequent calls will execute faster as long as the SQLStatement.text property has not changed. Using the same SQLStatement instances is better than creating new instances again and again. If you need to change your queries, then consider using parameterized statements.
You can also use techniques such as deferring what data you need at runtime. If you only need a subset of data, pull that back first and then retrieve other data as necessary. This may depend on your application scope and what needs you have to fulfill though.
Specifying the database with the table names will prevent the runtime from checking each database to find a matching table if you have multiple databases. It also helps prevent the runtime will choose the wrong database if this isn't specified. Do SELECT email FROM main.users; instead of SELECT email FROM users; even if you only have one single database. (main is automatically assigned as the database name when you call SQLConnection.open.)
If you happen to be writing lots of changes to the database (multiple INSERT or UPDATE statements), then consider wrapping it in a transaction. Changes will made in memory by the runtime and then written to disk. If you don't use a transaction, each statement will result in multiple disk writes to the database file which can be slow and consume lots of time.
Try to avoid any schema changes. The table definition data is kept at the start of the database file. The runtime loads these definitions when the database connection is opened. Data added to tables is kept after the table definition data in the database file. If changes such as adding columns or tables, the new table definitions will be mixed in with table data in the database file. The effect of this is that the runtime will have to read the table definition data from different parts of the file rather than at the beginning. The SQLConnection.compact() method restructures the table definition data so it is at the the beginning of the file, but its downside is that this method can also consume much time and more so if the database file is large.
Lastly, as Benoit pointed out in his comment, consider improving your own SQL queries and table structure that you're using. It would be helpful to know your database structure and queries are the actual cause of the slow performance or not. My guess is that you're using synchronous execution. If you switch to asynchronous mode, you'll see better performance but that doesn't mean it has to stop there.
The Adobe Flex documentation online has more information on improving database performance and best practices working with local SQL databases.
You could try indexing some of the columns used in the WHERE clause of your SELECT statements. You might also try minimizing usage of the LIKE keyword.
If you are joining your tables together, you might try simplifying the table relationships.
Like others have said, it's hard to get specific without knowing more about your schema and the SQL you are using.

Use ASP.NET Profile or not?

I need to store a few attributes of an authenticated user (I am using Membership API) and I need to make a choice between using Profiles or adding a new table with UserId as the PK. It appears that using Profiles is quick and needs less work upfront. However, I see the following downsides:
The profile values are squished into a single ntext column. At some point in the future, I will have SQL scripts that may update user's attributes. Querying a ntext column and trying to update a value sounds a little buggy to me.
If I choose to add a new user specific property and would like to assign a default for all the existing users, would it be possible?
My first impression has been that using profiles may cause maintainance headaches in the long run. Thoughts?
There was an article on MSDN (now on ASP.NET http://www.asp.net/downloads/sandbox/table-profile-provider-samples) that discusses how to make a Profile Table Provider. The idea is to store the Profile data in a table versus a row, making it easier to query with just SQL.
More onto that point, SQL Server 2005/2008 provides support for getting data via services and CLR code. You could conceivably access the Profile data via the API instead of the underlying tables directly.
As to point #2, you can set defaults to properties, and while this will not update other profiles immediately, the profile would be updated when next it is accessed.
Seems to me you have answered your own question. If your point 1 is likely to happen, then a SQL table is the only sensible option.
Check out this question...
ASP.NET built in user profile vs. old stile user class/tables
The first hint that the built-in profiles are badly designed is their use of delimited data in a relational database. There are a few cases that delimited data in a RDBMS makes sense, but this is definitely not one of them.
Unless you have a specific reason to use ASP.Net Profiles, I'd suggest you go with the separate tables instead.

Inner join across multiple access db's

I am re-designing an application for a ASP.NET CMS that I really don't like. I have made som improvements in performance only to discover that not only does this CMS use MS SQL but some users "simply" use MS Access database.
The problem is that I have some tables which I inner join, that with the MS Access version are in two different files. I am not allowed to simply move the tables to the other mdb file.
I am now trying to figure out a good way to "inner join" across multiple access db files?
It would really be a pity if I have fetch all the data and the do it programmatically!
Thanks
You don't need linked tables at all. There are two approaches to using data from different MDBs that can be used without a linked table. The first is to use "IN 'c:\MyDBs\Access.mdb'" in the FROM clause of your SQL. One of your saved queries would be like:
SELECT MyTable.*
FROM MyTable IN 'c:\MyDBs\Access.mdb'
and the other saved query would be:
SELECT OtherTable.*
FROM OtherTable IN 'c:\MyDBs\Other.mdb'
You could then save those queries, and then use the saved queries to join the two tables.
Alternatively, you can manage it all in a single SQL statement by specifying the path to the source MDB for each table in the FROM clause thus:
SELECT MyTable.ID, OtherTable.OtherField
FROM [c:\MyDBs\Access.mdb].MyTable
INNER JOIN [c:\MyDBs\Other.mdb].OtherTable ON MyTable.ID = OtherTable.ID
Keep one thing in mind, though:
The Jet query optimizer won't necessarily be able to use the indexes from these tables for the join (whether it will use them for criteria on individual fields is another question), so this could be extremely slow (in my tests, it's not, but I'm not using big datasets to test). But that performance issue applies to linked tables, too.
If you have access to the MDBs, and are able to change them, you might consider using Linked Tables. Access provides the ability to link to external data (in other MDBs, in Excel files, even in SQL Server or Oracle), and then you can perform your joins against the links.
I'd strongly encourage performance testing such an option. If it's feasible to migrate users of the Access databases to another system (even SQL Express), that would also be preferable -- last I checked, there are no 64-bit JET drivers for ODBC anymore, so if the app is ever hosted in a 64-bit environment, these users will be hosed.
Inside one access DB you can create "linked tables" that point to the other DB. You should (I think) be able to query the tables as if they both existed in the same DB.
It does mean you have to change one of the DBs to create the virtual table, but at least you're not actually moving the data, just making a pointer to it
Within Access, you can add remote tables through the "Linked Table Manager". You could add the links to one Access file or the other, or you could create a new Access file that references the tables in both files. After this is done, the inner-join queries are no different than doing them in a single database.

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