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If your company is using more than one database of any significant size, then you certainly are aware of the effects that occur when the databases slow down. Not only do inefficient databases annoy users, but they also waste your company’s valuable resources by taking up more time and energy, and increasing labor to both access and repair your database. A number of extremely simple steps can be taken to make your database operate more efficiently. Yes, by using today’s database management software, even you can undertake these steps. It doesn’t take a software architect to run the operations that will cause your databases to run more efficiently, and by doing it yourself you can save a lot of time and money. The first step in increasing database efficiency is field indexing. Indexing is the process of internal sorting of data into fields in its memory, which is done by your computer to speed up data access. Indexing doesn’t actually change how you access the data, but rather the speed with which your database management software finds the data for you. When you establish a relational database, almost all fields are indexed so that these fields can be search, sorted or queried. However, fields that are never or rarely ever manipulated do not have to be indexed. An example of this would be found in a high level payment system. Fields like customer names and payment amounts would obviously need to be indexed while a customer’s internal ID would not need to be indexed. Though it may sound extremely obvious, purging a database of junk data is an important task that is rarely performed. Junk data is defined as redundant entries, old and outdated information, and any entries that contain nonsensical data or errors. There are countless different types of database management software packages available for purchase that can purge this junk data automatically. The less junk there is in your database, the easier it is for data to be sorted through and searched without sifting through useless data. This also is beneficial to the overall performance of your database as well, making it quicker and easier to access, search, and sort. Data that is seldom accessed can be automatically archived, thus excluding it from routine searches and sorts. Over time this will increase your company’s efficiency, while decreasing labor costs. A number of extremely simple steps can be taken to make your database operate more efficiently. By using today’s database management software, you can undertake these steps. It doesn’t take a software architect to run the operations that will cause your databases to run more efficiently. For most databases, most fields should be indexed. Index fields that people use in searches and queries. You do not need to index fields that are never or very rarely searched, sorted, or queried. For example, in a high level payment system, you might index customer names and payment amounts, but you would probably not index the customer’s internal ID.
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