Denormalization

Now we tackle one of the most oft' asked questions: What about Denormalization? The real answer is this: Ask a dozen database developers and you'll get a dozen opinions.

Many people who denormalize their database structures do so for “performance reasons”. Here are some of the problems they claim to encounter:

  • Queries run slowly.

  • Reports take too long to print.

  • On-screen forms take time to populate.

  • Web pages take too long to populate.

Speed and performance are really relative to a user's definition of the terms. What some people may consider painfully slow may be as fast as greased lightning for others. You should always take performance complaints with a grain of salt and try to take the time to investigate the true ...

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