Database design issue

Hello folks,

We are developing a datamart to which data comes from different sources (SQL, Sybase, Excel, MDB). There is going to be a refresh process that will do the retrieval.
In the source tables, there are columns that can be nullable.
In the destinaton tables, we are planning to convert all nullable to NOT Null, so that the indexing can be applied and the retrieval will be faster.

But then what default value can we give it for data types Varchar, Numeric and Date.

Is it fine to give Spaces(1) for Varchar and zero for numneric. What do we give for date?

If anyone can give an insight into these questions, i really appreciate it.

Thank you,
VenugopalYou can give '' for the varchar.

Be very careful though as you will be losing information as there will now be no difference between a null and empty string or null and zero numeric. These differences may be meaningful in the source which will now be lost.|||You can index a column that allows NULL values. Only the primary key is not allowed to take NULL values.

blindman|||In the destinaton tables, we are planning to convert all nullable to NOT Null, so that the indexing can be applied and the retrieval will be faster.


Eh?

Columns that contain NULLs can certainly be indexed; they just can't be a primary key. There is no speed issue involved.

The database schema must reflect the requirements of your data. If the original data can contain NULL values, then the repository database must do so also. There is no value whatsoever that you can substitute for "the absence of any value," which is what NULL is.|||And it can't be a unique index...DB2 has an option that allows it, but It doesn'r seems so with SQL Server...unless I'm missing it (WHAT? AGAIN?)

USE Northwind
GO

CREATE TABLE myTable99 (Col1 int, col2 char(10))
GO

CREATE INDEX myIndex1 ON myTable99 (Col1)
GO

INSERT INTO myTable99(Col1, Col2)
SELECT 1, 'A' UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'B' UNION ALL
SELECT Null, 'C' UNION ALL
SELECT Null, 'D'

SELECT * FROM myTable99
GO

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX myIndex2 ON myTable99 (Col2)
GO

INSERT INTO myTable99(Col1, Col2)
SELECT 1, 'E' UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'F' UNION ALL
SELECT Null, Null
GO

SELECT * FROM myTable99
GO

INSERT INTO myTable99(Col1, Col2)
SELECT 3, Null
GO

DROP TABLE myTable99
GO