RE: Database Normalization-Outdated?

Lisa - not sure i follow the specific example, but i say RI is still a wonderful feature of an RDBMS and should not be thrown out. Many package apps have not implemented RI because they run on many RDBMS platforms, and each handles RI differently. So put the RI in the app they say - right! Not fun when the app forgets. I've seen some real messed up PeopleSoft data.

Codd was a smart guy. I'd stick to my guns if i were you. Don't have any bleeding edge white papers to support the argument, but we're building a new app with cool tools (java, app servers, & oracle db). Guess what - the Db is still normalized.

Then again, maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon - i am nearly 40 now.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 2:49 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

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

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Lisa R. Clary
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