Overnormalization

Question

When would a database design be described as overnormalized? Is this characterization an absolute one? Or is it dependent on the way it is used in the application? Thanks.

Answer 1

My take on this:

Always normalize as much as you are able to do. I usually go crazy on normalization, and try to design something that could handle every thinkable future extensions. What I end up with is a database design that is extremely flexible... and impossible to implement.

Then the real job starts: De-normalization. Here you solve what you know would be problematic to implement and/or would slow the queries down because of too many joins.

This way you know what you scarify for make the design usable.

Edit: Documentations! I forgot to mention that documenting the de-normalization is very important. It is extremely helpful when you take over a project to know the reason behind the choices.