I have a requirement where I need to get information about a particular column in a very large table. The values in the column are not unique and are repeated more than once. So to get unique information it becomes an expensive operation to traverse the entire table.
Is there a design strategy that will save time and improve the database performance?
Typically you would have a new table with your unique values and a key. You refer to that table via the key from your original table. You then have a table that answers your question.