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Yes, you're right. I agree that there are times that denormalizing makes sense. My point was that the item said: * Throw away the normal forms you learned in s
by psnj 17y ago
Yes, you're right. I agree that there are times that denormalizing makes sense. My point was that the item said:
* Throw away the normal forms you learned in school
* Denormalize [...] whenever it makes a query faster.
I think that's bad advice as stated. As you imply, you have to know why the rules are there to know when to break them intelligently. I didn't get that message from the item as posted, rather that the author thought that NF had little value, which probably doesn't belong in a list of database tips and tricks.
[edit: format]
- rjurney 17y agoIts bad advice because people denormalize the wrong tables. They'll actually slow queries down by denormalizing a table with a few rows into a table with many rows - which makes things slower.
- gtuhl 17y agoBeen unplugged all day so haven't been around to respond. This is a completely fair criticism - the wording in my post is indeed too plain. Without understanding the normal forms making smart decisions about denormalization is going to be very difficult.