Table Normalization - 1 table w/ many columns, or many tables w/ fewer columns?

I have a question an experienced DBA might be able to shed some light on. Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated. Here's the situation:

I have an Oracle database table with 120 columns. It has a primary key of 4 columns
and it is to be used as the main table in a survey application.

Table A

A DBA/developer has suggested it would be more efficient to split the table into 3 tables,
each with the 4 primary key columns, and define 1:1 relations between them as follows:

Table A1
|

Table A2
|

Table A3

Are there a good reasons for doing this? Speed, table sizes/extents, etc.? To me, this seems unnecessarily complex as Oracle should be able to handle a table with many columns without difficulty. And splitting the tables means
managing more code within forms and reports, etc. Am I missing something here?

It seems like the 1 larger table would provide easier access to data when writing
queries and creating forms/reports. Perhaps a little less efficient in terms of table
extents, but more efficient in terms of managing the overall application.

Please excuse me if I have asked the obvious.

AEG Received on Tue Feb 05 2002 - 23:06:19 CST