Storing a great many fields in a database

[Dr. Hawkins]

Currently I'm using the included SQLite while I'm figuring the whole
program out, but to stay ahead of the competition, I need to be able
to store in the cloud (particularly, for attorneys to use "virtual
assistants" in other parts of the countries, and to access files by
iPad in court).

Anyway, SQLite cheerfully ignores the data type entirely.

I assume that I'll stay compatible with both mySQL and postgreSQL, but
that's where the issue is.

I have a great many fields that provide the description of the debtor
(it's a bankruptcy program).  At the moment, there are 276 of them
(and will probably be about 400 when complete).  Most of these are
money values (decimal(12,2)).  A handful are boolean, and the rest
text ranging from 1 to 200 characters.

I need to be able to access them by name, so currently there is a
keyword for each, and three different values for each one(a default,
an override, and the actual value).

I've been happily assigning data types in a custom property field, and
even fixed them up today.  And then it occurred to me that I don't get
to specify a different data type by row . . . (I have debt and asset
information with a great many per debt, so that goes in a different
table).

Given that the "norm" will probably be a remote rather than local
database server, what is the best way for me to structure the table?
My 200 character upper limit seems to suggest that blobs would be
overkill, but allocating three 200 character strings per entry seems
like serious overkill--or is it?

I could have 400 columns, I suppose, with three rows (for each of
those values)--but isn't this going to slow down the server?

Or split it into two tables, and let my get/set functions figure out
which to use, one for currency values, and the other for everything
else?

Or will the minimum row size mean that at 200 characters each, it just
doesn't matter anyway?


-- 
The Hawkins Law Firm
Richard E. Hawkins, Esq.
(702) 508-8462
HawkinsLawFirm at gmail.com
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Suite A
Las Vegas, NV  89109