Improving Performance in a Hierarchical SQL Table Structure With Column Propagation

Hierarchy structures are common in databases, and if not approached correctly, they might lead to performance issues and inefficiencies in your application

This article will show how column propagation can represent an easy approach to improving query performance when dealing with a hierarchical data structure.

We’ll do this with a real-world scenario based on a data-driven project involving a live data website developed for a startup operating in the sports industry. You’ll learn everything you need to know about column propagation as a solution to the performance issues inherent in hierarchical SQL table structures. Let’s begin.

The Context

My team and I recently worked on a website for soccer fans that had millions of pages. The idea of that website is to be the definitive resource for soccer supporters, especially when it comes to betting. The database and application architecture is not particularly complex. This is because a scheduler takes care of periodically recalculating complex data and storing it in tables so that the queries will not have to involve SQL aggregations. So, the real challenges lie in…