On 10/6/14, 3:02 AM, Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
I'm wondering if anyone can help with advice on how to manage large lists/sets 
of items in a postgresql database.

I have a database which uses multiple  lists of items roughly like this:

CREATE TABLE List (
   ID SERIAL,
   Name VARCHAR ....
);

and a table containing individual entries in the lists:

CREATE TABLE ListEntry (
   ListID INT, /* Reference the List table */
   ItemID INT /* References an Item table */
) ;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ListEntryIDX ON ListEntry(ListID, ItemID);
BTW, performance-wise, your best bet might be to forget about using a listentry 
table (BTW, I recommend not using CamelCase for database object naming) and 
instead put an array in the list table:

CREATE TABLE list(
    list_id         serial     PRIMARY KEY
    , list_name     varchar    NOT NULL UNIQUE
    , list_items    int[]      NOT NULL||||

);

I think there's an extension/add-on that would let you enforce referrential 
integrity between list_items and the items table, but I can't find it now.
--
Jim Nasby, Data Architect, Blue Treble
Data in Trouble? Get it in Treble! http://BlueTreble.com



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