[ale] Database consulting in return for homebrew?

[Mike Harrison]

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008, Charles Shapiro wrote:

> Any DBAs out there interested in consulting on a smallish database project?

Without giving away the secret sauce, what are you trying to do?

Generic MySQL DB advice:

   Use a "unique" record identifier on every table.
   I name all of mine: "uniq"

   Think about how you want the data back OUT of the system
   while you contrive table layouts.

   Unless this thing is going to need to be really optimized,
   big fat wide tables that require few joins, are easier to
   work with than lots of small tables.

   MyISAM tables work great, unless you will be inserting
   records in the same table at the same time you are
   reading them. InnoDB tables are "slower" but don't
   block reads while writing as much (simple terms).

   Make sure any number fields (like a double(16,2)
   will handle the number size needed, to the accuracy
   required. "unsigned" is helpful, but if you need to
   work with negative numbers, a pain.

  "The FLOAT and DOUBLE data types are used to represent approximate numeric data value"

   That word "approximate" is important. MySQL will round
   numbers to fit. I often do math to 6 decimal palces
   in MySQL and this will bite your ass.

   Index, index. index. Can sure speed up things
   as they get larger.