# Dropping stringvalue column from History DB

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dropping-stringvalue-column-from-history-db/71195>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [March 16, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dropping-stringvalue-column-from-history-db/71195 "2023-03-16T22:27:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Muti\_Gozel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/muti_gozel/32/72908_2.png) [@Muti\_Gozel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Muti_Gozel)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dropping-stringvalue-column-from-history-db/71195/1 "2023-03-16T22:27:59Z")

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Hello,

I'm saving history of some tags on PostgreSQL is it possible to drop the stringvalue column? It is taking too much space.

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2023, 12:42am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dropping-stringvalue-column-from-history-db/71195/2 "2023-03-17T00:42:31Z")

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If you're not storing any string values, I would be pretty surprised if an empty column takes up much space, or even _any_.

StackOverflow seems to back that guess up:

> <https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/91848/how-do-completely-empty-columns-in-a-large-table-affect-performance/91849#91849>

That said, you can certainly try dropping the column. I can guarantee that the next partition the historian creates will have it; I don't know for sure whether we'll actively attempt to recreate it outside of partition creation (or just in time before storing a string value if you start historizing one).

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2023, 8:40am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dropping-stringvalue-column-from-history-db/71195/3 "2023-03-17T08:40:25Z")

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> [@paul-griffith](#):
>
> or even _any_.

This is correct. A bit is flipped in row meta-data to signal a null in a column and that column then takes no space at all.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Muti\_Gozel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/muti_gozel/32/72908_2.png) [@Muti\_Gozel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Muti_Gozel)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2023, 3:00pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dropping-stringvalue-column-from-history-db/71195/4 "2023-03-17T15:00:48Z")

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I checked dropping the column. It is like you said there is no advantage to dropping the column when the values are null. Thank you.