Adding a column - Column oder a concern?

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Chris Cobb - 28 Oct 2004 05:20 GMT

I have a table that currently contains 718000 rows. I wish to add a
column to the table. Adding this column anywhere other than the end of
the table requires exporting data, a drop and recreate, then a
re-import of data. Is there any disadvantage to adding this column to
the end of the table. Will this fragment the table. Is a reorg needed?

Thanks,

- CBC

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Serge Rielau - 28 Oct 2004 13:10 GMT

Chris,

In reality there is no difference.
In theory (or when running a benchmark where 0.1% are a measure of
success) there are. Tuning the column ordering is not worth your money.

Cheers
Serge

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Mark - 28 Oct 2004 15:56 GMT

> I have a table that currently contains 718000 rows. I wish to add a
> column to the table. Adding this column anywhere other than the end of
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> - CBC

Generally there is no problem adding a column to the end of a table.
The space is not actually allocated until you insert/udpdate the row,
or do a reorg. It is generally better to do a reorg before doing large
updates to the table with a new column, since the old row will usually
not fit back in the same space as the row before the new data is
added.

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