[thelist] database structure for speedier queries

[Nan Harbison]

Hi All,
 
I have a table of project data (id, type, contact person, description, etc)
which could get very long. When a project is finished, the user has the
ability to archive the project.
I see two ways to do this:
 
1. create a duplicate table with all the same fields  ('archived_projects'
or something) and move the information over to that table.
 
2.  have a field in the 'projects'  table to mark it as archived
 
It seems to me that the first way would be more efficient because when it is
searching for projects in progress, it checks a shorter list of projects.
 
Do you agree with this? I don't know much about efficient design.
 
TIA
Nan