Data Element Length - Restriction / Best Practice

[Former Member]

Many databases in the market currently allows table/column names to be 128 characters long. Our developers are suggesting that 30-35 characters is the limit one should strive for.

One thought is that Business Objects cannot handle queries bigger than 64K u2013 is this true? If a query has several filters or results fields that are very long will that be a problem?

Also, is there some potential usage issue / best practice by which using a shorter name would be advantageous in Business Objects?

Our tool stack is SQL Server 2005 / Informatica 8.1.1 / Business Objects XI R2

[Former Member]

Hi Jennifer,

I am not sure if the 64K limit is true. However, given that this is the query string that BO is passing to your SQL Server, it would be a limit

The following query is 2k, so you can imagine that a 64k one would be difficult to read

SELECT

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField1,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField12,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField22,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField32,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField42,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField52,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField62,

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField72,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField1,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField12,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField13,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField14,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField15,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField16,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField17

FROM

A_Long_Table_Name,

Another_Long_Table_Name

WHERE

A_Long_Table_Name.TestField1 = Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField1

UNION ALL

SELECT

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField1,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField12,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField22,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField32,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField42,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField52,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField62,

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField72,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField1,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField12,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField13,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField14,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField15,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField16,

Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField17

FROM

A_Long_Table_Name2,

Another_Long_Table_Name

WHERE

A_Long_Table_Name2.TestField1 = Another_Long_Table_Name.TestField1

On the object names, I do not believe you will recieve any noticable difference in performance. It is better to keep the names of columns and tables legible, and your DBAs suggestion of 30-35 is about right.

Regards

Alan