Choosing type of Tables

       DB2 UDB supports many kinds of tables. The following chart can help DBAs select the table that's best suited for their applications :

Take Advantage of…	Regular Table	Append Mode Table	Regular Table and Index	MDC and Index Tables	Range Clustered Tables
Clustering of data	Fair	Fair	Good	Best	Best
Efficient use of space	Best	Fair	Good	Good	Best/Fair
Supports IMPORT utility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports LOAD utility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Supports REORG utility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Growth Administration	Best	Good	Good	Good	Fair
ALTER table structure	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
1-row DML statement performance	Good	Best	Fair	Fair	Best
Use for buffer pool	Best	Good	Good	Good	Best
Recommend for OLTP workloads	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

Range-clustered tables are useful when the data is tightly clustered across one or more columns in the table. The smallest and largest values in the columns define the range of possible values. You use these columns to access rows in the table.

Regular tables with indexes are general purpose tables that represent a good starting choice. If your data will be loosely clustered (not monotonically increasing), consider using a regular table and indexes.