Creating a variable on database to hold global stats

Let's pretend I've got a social network. I'm always showing to the user how many users are registered and have activated their profile. So, everytime a single user logs in, it goes to DB and make a:

select count(*) from users where status = 'activated'

so if 5.000 users logs in, or simply refreshes the page, it will make 5.000 requests to SQL above. I was wondering if is better to have a variable some place(that I still have no idea where to put) that everytime a user activates his profile will add 1 and then, when I want to show how many users are registered to that social network, I'll only get the value of this开发者_StackOverflow variable.

How can I make this? Is it really a better solution to what I've got?

You could use an indexed view, that SQL Server will automatically maintain:

create table dbo.users (
    ID int not null,
    Activated bit not null
)
go
create view dbo.user_status_stats (Activated,user_count)
with schemabinding
as
    select Activated,COUNT_BIG(*) from dbo.users group by Activated
go
create unique clustered index IX_user_status_stats on dbo.user_status_stats (Activated)
go

This just has two possible statuses, but could expand to more using a different data type. As I say, in this case, SQL Server will maintain the counts behind the scenes, so you can just query the view:

SELECT user_count from user_status_stats with (NOEXPAND) where Activated = 1

and it won't have to query the underlying table. You need to use the WITH (NOEXPAND) hint on editions below (Enterprise/Developer).

Although as @Jim suggested, doing a COUNT(*) against an index when the index column(s) can satisfy the query criteria using equality comparisons should be pretty quick also.

As you've already guessed - it's not a great idea to calculate this value every time someone hits the site.

You could do as you suggest, and update a central value as users are added, although you'll have to ensure that you don't end up with two processes updating the number simultaneously.

Alternatively you could have a job which runs your SQL routinely and updates the central 'user count' value.

Alternatively #2, you could use something like MemCache to hold the calculated value for a period of time, and then when the cache expires, recalculate it again.

There's a few options you could consider:

1) like you say, maintain a global count each time a profile is activated to save the hit on the users table each time. You could just store that count in a "Stats" table and then query that value from there.

2) don't show the actual "live" count, show a count that's "pretty much up to date" - e.g. cache the count in your application and have the value expire periodically so you then requery the count less frequently. Or if you store the count in a "Stats" table per above, you could have a scheduled job that updates the count every hour, instead of every time a profile is activated.

Depends whether you want to show the exact figure in real-time or whether you can live with a delay. Obviously, data volumes matter too - if you have a large database, then having a slightly out of date cached value could be worth while.

From a purely SQL Server standpoint, no, you are not going to find a better way of doing this. Unless, perhaps, your social network is Facebook sized. Denormalizing your data design (such as keeping a count in a separate table) will lead to possible sources of the data getting out of sync. It doesn't have to get out of sync if it is coded properly, but it can...

Just make sure that you have an index on Status. At which point SQL will not scan the table for the count, but it will scan the index instead. The index will be much smaller (that is, more data will fit in a disk page). If you were to convert your status to an int, smallint, or tinyint you would get even more index leaves in a disk page and thus much less IO. To get your description ('activated', etc.), use a reference table. The reference table would be so small, SQL would just keep the whole thing in RAM after the first access.

Now, if you still think this is too much overhead (and it should't be) you could come up with hybrid method. You could store your count in a separate table (which SQL would keep in RAM if it is just the one record) or assuming your site is in asp.net you could create an Application variable to keep track of the count. You could increment it in Session_Start and decrement it in Session_End. But, you will have to come up with a way of making the the increment and decrement thread safe so two sessions don't try and update the value at the same time.

You can also use the Global Temporary table. You will always get fast retrieval. Even if you are setting 30 seconds ping. The Example Trigger Link1, Example Trigger Link2 will maintain such activities in this table.