Visual Web Developer 2008 Express. Visual Basic. SQL Server 2005.
I have two types of data that my users are entering: a NOTE and a CONTACT. The NOTE only requires the user to provide a date and the note. The CONTACT allows the user to enter a date, title, note, and a dozen or so "tags," which are bit fields in the SQL Table. Instead of using two tables (a NOTES table and a CONTACTS table) I am tempted to use just one table, as this will simplify my coding. However, I am concerned that if I use the CONTACTS table (the layout of which is below) for my NOTES, that I will be very inefficient with space (there are a few fields in common between NOTES and CONTACTS, but many fields in CONTACTS that NOTES will not use). I have the CONTACTS table set up where the fields not in common with NOTES allow for NULL values. Does this offset my space concerns? Do fields with NULL values take up no space?
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