Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Bron
From: Bron@cup.portal.com (George Bron Faison)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Do you normalize?
Message-ID: <20647@cup.portal.com>
Date: 21 Jul 89 03:31:19 GMT
References: <242@6sigma.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 34

On 7/18/89 14:44 blm@6sigma.UUCP (Brian Matthews) writes:
>A few questions for people designing databases.  Do you normalize your
>databases?  If you do normalize, do you do so by hand, or with an
>automated tool?  How far do you take it - 3rd, 4th, or 5th normal form?
>Do you think it was worth the effort?  What DBMS do you use?

Yes, by hand (but looking at various CASE tools), to 3rd as a minimum.
Definitely worth the effort.  Don't believe you can properly implement
a relational database without normalizing your data first.

> Just curious if people normalize and if they think it's worth it...

Most problems I see in systems are due to an improper design, which
usually means not in 3rd normal form or better.  Understanding the
lingo of normalization (while learning) is a lot harder than actually
doing it.  Once you've been through it a few times it rapidly becomes
"natural" and intuitive.

You'll also learn that a normalized system behaves normally! :-)

(You'll have a lot fewer problems down the road.  If I run into
unexpected difficulties or find that it's "hard" to do something
I want to do, my first step is to step back and see if something
is not truly in 3rd normal form.  4th, and Boyce-Codd/5th, etc.
forms are far less commonly needed.)
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  George "Bron" Faison         Email: Bron@cup.portal.com
                              USMAIL: Modern Office Systems Technology, Inc.
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P. S.  I use ORACLE.