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Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed
book

Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

by Ray Rankins, Paul T. Bertucci, Chris Gallelli, Alex T. Silverstein
December 2013
Intermediate to advanced
1872 pages
153h 31m
English
Sams
Content preview from Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Sparse Columns: Good or Bad?

There is some disagreement in the SQL Server community whether or not sparse columns are appropriate. A number of professionals are of the opinion that any table design that requires sparse columns is a bad design that does not follow good relational design guidelines. Sparse columns, by their nature, are heavily denormalized. On the other hand, many times you have to live in the real world and make the best of a bad database design that you’ve inherited. Sparse columns can help solve performance and storage issues in databases that may have been poorly designed.

Although sparse columns can solve certain kinds of problems with database design, you should never use them as an alternative to proper database and table ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780133408539Purchase book