Indexed Shapefile vs. PostGIS

[Ethan Alpert]

You can also use shptree to generate a spatial index file (QIX) which
mapserver will use to fairly efficiently display the data.

-e

-----Original Message-----
From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at lists.umn.edu] On
Behalf Of Rob McCulley
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 2:14 PM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at lists.umn.edu
Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Indexed Shapefile vs. PostGIS


I have a polygon layer with about a million polygons.  The maxscale of
the layer will be such that only about two dozen of the polygons will be
visible at any one time.  I'm trying to decide on the best method to
store this data.  What will be more efficient?

- Have the polygon layer split into smaller shapefiles and then use an
index file.

- Have the polygon layer in a single table in PostGIS.

I'm leaning towards the index file setup, but if any of you have
experience with large datasets in PostGIS, will it perform as well as
using index shapefile?  It will take a lot less work on my part if I can
simply import the shapefile into PostGIS.

Thanks,
Rob McCulley