[mso] Re: Access 2002 normalizing a database
- From: "Green" <1z@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 17:01:48 +0100
> Does this sound like the right reasons to separate the table?
Hard to tell really... One of the biggest reasons for normalising is
to avoid duplication because of space considerations... but with
computers being what they are today then sometimes it just isn't worth
it. For example you could define a query pulling distinct patient
records offa the non normalised table and run against that to find if
you have the patient already.
Another good reason to normalise is in order to change the tables more
easily... and space comes into it again here. You could for example
want to add all sorts of patient data... address, tel number, soc.
sec., contact name, age, for demographic info if nothing else. Adding
all that to your non normalised table set up would increase the size
significantly more than adding it to a patient table.
Basically I'd say it depends on how much data you're talking about and
are you thinking of expanding? 1500 Records isn't all that many...
especially because it sounds like you don't have a lot of fields. How
many records do you expect to add in say a week? If you had some
30,000 records then the space saving would become significant but it
gets to be a trade off with the amount of work needed to fetch and
match the data from all the different tables.
I'd personally always try to normalise but then I'm strange like that
:-)
Ok ... Just a thought but you may want to think about an eqipment
table as well giving you 3 in total.... Patient data, equipment data
and data on the patients lending the equipment. Later on you could add
a supplier table even.
Lisa
> A couple of reasons. The database is currently around 1500
> records and
> they're adding to it everyday. One patient could rent a
> few pieces of
> equipment on each visit and that same patient could have
> more than 1 visit.
> I would like to have that patient entered just once in the
> database and then
> use a separate table to track all the rented equipment. I
> don't want to
> keep duplicating the patient info. Also, more than 1 person
> enters data into
> the database. With a patient table there's less of a chance
> of duplicate
> patients with misspellings. They will search on a patient
> name before adding
> it as new.
>
> I want to create a form with a subform so when they search
> on a patient, all
> the patient's transactions will appear. This way it will
> be easier when
> they need to update a transaction.
>
> Does this sound like the right reasons to separate the
> table? Thanks for
> your help.
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