Message-ID: <BAY104-DAV11DEF746C9A1AB62883397C7610@phx.gbl>
From: "zackchandler" <zackchandler@hotmail.com>
To: <pgsql-sql@postgresql.org>
Subject: Design question: Scalability and tens of thousands of tables?
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 09:58:29 -0800
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Hi everybody.  Quick question:

I'm designing an application that will allow users to create custom =
objects
on the application level.  A custom object can have zero or more =
attributes.
Attributes can be one of 5-10 types (ex. String, Number, List, Date, =
Time,
Currency, etc...). This will allow users to track anything exactly as =
they
want.  My first thought on how to structure this is to make a custom =
table
in the db for each custom object.  The attributes would map to fields =
and
everything would work just dandy.

The problem is I am very concerned about scalability with having a =
different
table created for each custom object.  I want to design to site to =
handle
tens of thousands of users.  If each user has 3-5 custom objects the
database would have to handle tens of thousands of tables.

So it would appear that this is a broken solution and will not scale.  =
Has
anyone designed a similar system or have ideas to share?

Thanks,
Zack