Nancy,

PMFJI -

I denormalize in a limited amount - primarily for performance reasons on searches, reports, etc. Too much normalization can make a system uneccessarily complex and sluggish - both in development and for users - I know - I've been there. As developers, we need to concentrate more on user practicalities than holy grails of database academia.

Again - the thought that "Noramlization is the way it has to be always" is one of those "truths" that are espoused without any true justification. In fact - I submit that for many - if not most - systems, a designer who does NOT implement strategic denormalization doesn't know what they are doing.

Ken



>>But SQL is slow - why normalize if you SQL?
>
>Why use a relational database if you don't normalize?