Automatic reduction of table memory footprint using column cardinality information

摘要

In a business system, one or more methods can be used to reduce an amount of redundancy in the storage of data. One implementation includes a method of reducing a memory footprint of a database table having multiple rows and one or more columns, in which each of the one or more columns has a cardinality, and the cardinality is a total number of different values in the rows of each column. The method includes comparing the cardinality with a total number of possible values in the rows of at least one column based on a width of the column. The method also includes reducing the width of the column if the cardinality is less than a threshold based on the total number of possible values in the rows of the column.