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alpha five very slow

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    alpha five very slow

    I have a set of child table of about 3 mil records, and a parent table of about 1.5 mil records, that has last, first, middle init, state and a combined field that has all 4 of those and is the linking field between the 2 tables. The relationship is one to many as one name can have several matches in the child table.
    Everything is soooo slow. Any ideas as to why? How I can speed it up?

    #2
    Re: alpha five very slow

    I would suggest adding a unique filed to the parent, like client_num, and then add that same field to the children. But I would recommend making a copy of the database folder and working in the copy, and maybe working on the a's first, as a test.
    Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
    972 524 8714
    [email protected]

    ____________________
    "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

    Comment


      #3
      Re: alpha five very slow

      Hi Senia,

      The main problem I see with a link like that for a set is the possibility of blanks in some of the fields. If the records in the parent table are unique now, you could create a new link field using that combo field as your sort and populate that new field with an update operation that creates an incremented value. Create a matching field in the child table and then using your combo field match the two tables and post the parent field to the child records. Then check the child for blanks in that new field.
      Robin

      Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

      Comment


        #4
        Re: alpha five very slow

        Martin you are too fast!
        Robin

        Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

        Comment


          #5
          Re: alpha five very slow

          Thanks Martin and MoGrace, there is some other things that complicate the matter a bit. Your ideas are awesome, see my post on if_statement to get more info.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: alpha five very slow

            PS: I forgot to mention that since you are starting out, you should make the unique field a numeric field and not character - because you will likely need to set this up to run with sql tables instead of dbf's.

            I would look at setting it up with sql from the start, since you just starting out, since sql will be much faster with files this size.
            Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
            972 524 8714
            [email protected]

            ____________________
            "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

            Comment


              #7
              Re: alpha five very slow

              Ok, being that I am new at this...how easy is it to set it up with sql? Do I need to know extra programming? (I know some) Maybe i can just take my tables and export them to sql?

              Comment


                #8
                Re: alpha five very slow

                Personally, I have never worked with sql tables, so I can't help you on any code or syntax,etc. - BUT since (pardon my english) you don't hardly know nothin' anyhow's, why not start off learning with sql - but you are then working with active link tables and how you do stuff is very different from working with dbf's.

                The advantage is, from what I've read, that sql is made to handle big tables, like yours.

                You could run an app with dbf's like yours, but if you shadow the app (install on several workstations,) you will need a real screamer network/server/work stations.

                PS: if you do decide to go to sql, most of everything you have alread done will be worthless, and need to be recone, like forms, etc.
                Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                972 524 8714
                [email protected]

                ____________________
                "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: alpha five very slow

                  Forms won't be a problem, I just have one big table that I'd import into SQL..so that is it. But it makes sense to switch also becuase of security.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: alpha five very slow

                    What will be the basic purpose of the program? It sounds like you have a big list of clients or people.
                    Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                    972 524 8714
                    [email protected]

                    ____________________
                    "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: alpha five very slow

                      This is a mailing/phone/email and the purpose is to be able to sort through it fast to see the numbers, and export as needed. Data is continually added and deleted. There are two programs that are used to update the list monthly.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: alpha five very slow

                        Martin's advice regarding migrating the tables to a client/server back end is good. However, if you need the one to many link, I would caution that sets based on one to many links using Active Link tables are problematic. Most users report slow performance and that was borne out with my own testing in V9. (In the release notes for V10.5 Selwyn notes that there have been big performance improvements for sets based on active link tables and one to one relationships. Who knows, perhaps improvements in one to many performance may be along soon.)

                        I'm sure that you could get the performance you want with a mix of Xdialogs and Xbasic, but that may be more than you want to take on.
                        Finian

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: alpha five very slow

                          Well, now that I know what the app is to be used for, and especially given Finnian's input, I am changing my tune, and recommend staying with the dbfs.

                          You can encrypt the data if you are worried about security.

                          I will hold though that the better the hardware the better the performance will be, because they are big files.

                          Explain why you need a set - I'm not clear on that. It sounds like the reason for the set is to try to find duplicates. If that is the only reason, then I think there are better ways.

                          It also sounds like it is a recurring issue - like every time you get in new data, you import all of it, and then look for duplicates again.

                          How many concurrent users will be using the app? how many workstations?

                          I did some work for a guy once who had a really big file, containing all the listings for cerrtain kinds of houses in the DFW metroplex. Given what the app needed to do, namely a way to quickly isolate listings on several variables, it worked ok.
                          Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                          972 524 8714
                          [email protected]

                          ____________________
                          "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: alpha five very slow

                            Yeah, mine is working fine but slower. I am trying to see how I can improve it and make it better becuase it was slow when I work on the set so that I don't have the dups. I'm trying to see if indexes will make a difference (?).

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: alpha five very slow

                              I don't think indexes will improve speed on the set, but on queries it will. I still think there would be a better way of looking for duplicates than the set. Also, search for LQO (Lightening Query Optimization) and study.
                              Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                              972 524 8714
                              [email protected]

                              ____________________
                              "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                              Comment

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