The following are general hints that can contribute to an improved runtime for SQL applications.
- When you are building a database, you should derive the definition of the tables from a previously performed examination of the structures. When defining the key columns, you should ensure that the columns that are especially selective, and for which search conditions are specified especially often, are placed at the beginning of the key. This creates the possibility of only having to consider a very small part of the table when processing a SELECT statement.
- Only columns with as high a selectivity as possible should be inverted. Do not choose columns such as gender or marital status as single-column index keys, due to their low number of different values. These columns can only be used very rarely for a non-sequential search, as these would usually be more costly than a