Lisa,
Any chance of getting the name of both the consultant and the book?
Jared
"Lisa R. Clary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
04/30/2002 12:48 PM
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Subject: Database Normalization-Outdated?
Hi all,
I sort of come from an old school where you should normalize data where
you
can (typically 3rd or 2nd) so that you get the efficiency of normalization
but not the difficulty of data extraction. Additionally, I always thought
that putting RI on tables was fairly important (prevention of orphans,
reliable data, etc.) Recently, a consultant who has published a book about
SQL is now telling me that there is a better model--that of value pair
combinations (e.g. variable, value) to which all of the data can be
modeled
without the creation of any extra tables. So instead of the 600 tables now
(normalized & with RI) should be broken down into 2 tables--one to hold
the
meta data (e.g. variable name and possible values) mapped back to say a
customer table that has a (variable,value,event code,comment) combination
describing everything about that customer. The event code for example
might
be 300 - first time customer, 400- wanted removal from mailing list, etc.)
So in theory, I will have very few columns but many more thousands of
records. All integrity would be maintained through an application.
Can anyone comment on this methodology? Supposedly, --according to the
consultant, this is the wave of the future and that "...Oracle Clinicals
is
designed in this fashion" . Why would we spend $$$ to have a flat file
design? Am I missing something? I don't want to see this travesty happen
to
any of the databases for which I am responsible, but unless I can come up
with something concrete (aside from the textbooks I used in school) ...it
will happen (after all, he is published!) Or maybe someone can tell me
where
I can take a course in this style of database modeling.
thanks for your input....
lc
--
Lisa R. Clary
Children's Oncology Group Data Center
104 N. Main Street, Suite 600
Gainesville, FL 32601
(352) 392-5198 x 312
(352) 392-8162 (fax)
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