Design question: Using Array datatypes

On 23 Sep 2002, Mr. Tomcat wrote:

I noticed that PG supports arrays. I noticed also that one of the rules
of DB normalization is "no repeating fields". It seems like using
arrays would violate that. I have a particular need that would benefit
from using arrays. There will be no need to search elements in the
array, so it seems like a good place to use it. What are opinions on
array usage? Is it a horrible misfeature, never to be used, or is it
the right way to go in some situations? I have never used arrays in a
db design.

Thanks for an opinions on this.

contrib/intarray is what you need. We use arrays extensively and rather
happy. It's not a "repeating fields", it's a field with "repeating elements"

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Regards,
Oleg
_____________________________________________________________
Oleg Bartunov, sci.researcher, hostmaster of AstroNet,
Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University (Russia)
Internet: oleg@sai.msu.su, http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/
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