Are there consequences for having many unused domains in an SDE workspace?

Question

Greetings,

Are there any consequences (geodatabase performance or other) to having domains "stack up" in a SQL Server-based SDE geodatabase? I noticed many unused domains in an SDE workspace when running a script that writes domain properties to a series of file geodatabase tables. The script is attached. A lot of them have the same base name followed by an underscore and then a number:

In this particular enterprise geodatabase, there are 913 domains but only 93 of them are actually applied. So, is this ok? Or is there a compelling reason to clean up the unused domains and try to prevent them stacking up like this in the future.

Thanks,

Micah

Geodatabase​ Enterprise GIS​

exportDomainProperties.zip

blake.terhune · Accepted Answer

I'm not sure about performance, but my first reaction is to keep it clean and remove the unused domains. We have a similar issue (although not this severe) but we haven't yet decided how to proceed. I I know you can create something, but I thought I would share what I came up with to identify unused domains and delete them. I noticed when testing that by default it didn't look for domains in subtypes so I had to code some extra for that. Maybe it'll help you.

Delete Unused Domains