Use the SQL server to:
- Find rows based on WHERE clause.
- JOIN tables
- GROUP BY
- ORDER BY
- DISTINCT
Don't use an SQL server:
- To validate data (like date)
- As a calculator
Tips
- Use keys wisely.
- Keys are good for searches, but bad for inserts / updates of key columns.
- Keep by data in the 3rd normal database form, but don't be afraid of
duplicating information or creating summary tables if you need more
speed. - Instead of doing a lot of GROUP BYs on a big table, create
summary tables of the big table and query this instead. - UPDATE table set count=count+1 where key_column=constant is very fast!
- For log tables, it's probably better to generate summary tables from them
once in a while than try to keep the summary tables live.
Take advantage of default values on INSERT.
