One of my favourite answers - it depends :-)

If you're 30 odd fields are all the same sort of thing (e.g. software projects with 1-30 members) then I'd split it off into separate tables. One for programmers, one for projects, and one to map programmers onto projects.

If you've really got 30 separate unrelated fields then just stick them all in the same table. You might have to split it later for efficiency reasons - but you probably won't so don't prematurely optimise ;-)

That said, I'd be surprised if all 30 fields are unrelated. Is there another concept in there that you can abstract out to another table (e.g. four fields that should really be an address table)?

In reply to Re: (OT) Database design: omitted partially filled fields. by adrianh
in thread (OT) Database design: omitted partially filled fields. by BUU

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