Performance best practices for database customizations | Index design


12.2.1 Table design

When defining a new table, you will need to decide what type of information will be stored in the table, the data types of the attributes, and whether an attribute can have a null value, and determine which attributes require a default value, define the primary key, define additional unique indexes or indexes required for performance reasons, and determine any relationships with other tables.

Design your table with application access in mind (that is, pay attention to the way that the application accesses data). This will help you place the columns in the correct order and decide on what indexes you may need.