How do you determine how far to normalize a database?

Question

When creating a database structure, what are good guidelines to follow or good ways to determine how far a database should be normalized? Should you create an un-normalized

Answer 1

The truth is that "it depends." It depends on a lot of factors including:

• Code (Hand-coded or Tool driven (like ETL packages))
• Primary Application (Transaction Processing, Data Warehousing, Reporting)
• Type of Database (MySQL, DB/2, Oracle, Netezza, etc.)
• Database Architecture (Tablular, Columnar)
• DBA Quality (proactive, reactive, inactive)
• Expected Data Quality (do you want to enforce data quality at the application level or the database level?)