Hello,
Please help.
I have the following table ( VACATION_PACKAGES )
CREATE TABLE VACATION_PACKAGES (
id int(11) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
age_group enum('mixed','single','couple','senior','family') DEFAULT 'mixed' NOT NULL,
all_inclusive enum('no','yes') DEFAULT 'no' NOT NULL,
destination char(60) NOT NULL,
event enum('none','art_culture','festival','sporting') DEFAULT 'none' NOT NULL,
festival enum('no','yes') DEFAULT 'no' NOT NULL,
guided enum('no','yes') DEFAULT 'no' NOT NULL,
price enum('budget','moderate','luxery') DEFAULT 'budget' NOT NULL,
specialty enum('none','adventure','romantic','athletic','other') DEFAULT 'none' NOT NULL,
type enum('other','coach','cruise','hotel_resort','rail') DEFAULT 'other' NOT NULL,
start_date date,
end_date date,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
I'm trying to create a database close to "normal form" .
Here is my dilemma / questions.
As you can see from the above I have several enum column types.
Should I separate each of those enum columns to individual tables?
Take my age group column as an example.
Should I change this:
age_group enum('mixed','single','couple','senior','family') DEFAULT 'mixed' NOT NULL,
to this:
age_group char(20),
... and create a AGE_GROUP table with one column for age_goup?... This would
make it easy for me to grab data from the AGE_GROUP table to make a drop down list
box for user input into the age_group column of the VACATION_PACKAGES table.
It seams so much easier for me to have everything bunched into one big
un-normalized table ( is my VACATION_PACKAGES un-normalized? ) for building
queries and using separate smaller tables to fill up the big un-normalized table.
But doesn't that duplicate data ( as in my AGE_GROUP example above).
I've read several articles on normalizing data. They all seam to rely on
simple/complex business scenarios ( product, customer etc. ). I have a hard time
trying to normalize a database that has tables like VACATION_PACKAGES, NEWS, TIPS
ARTICLES, CONTACTS.
I realize that this is a design question but maybe someone with a similar
situation could give me some advice and/or point me to a good SQL mailing list.
Thanks,
-Sam
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