Re: Database Normalization-Outdated?

Lisa,

Any chance of getting the name of both the consultant and the book?

Jared

"Lisa R. Clary" <lisa_at_cog.ufl.edu>
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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        Subject:        Database Normalization-Outdated?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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