Re: Excessive Normalization? One table or multiple tables?

[Rick James]

I see no compelling reason, in database design, to have "sphere" in a table separate from "ball" and "planet". In OO programming, you can attach methods to "sphere"; not so in db.

If you have millions of rows, performance can become a guiding force in how you craft normalization. Is that your case?

Numeric values should be stored as numbers (INT / FLOAT / DECIMAL, as appropriate). Character strings as VARCHAR / TEXT. Date/times as any of several datatypes. etc.

These are the main tools you have to work with:
* What will you filter on (WHERE ...)
* How will you combine tables (JOIN, UNION, ...)
* Do you need the records in order (ORDER BY)
* And GROUP BY

SQL has the power to efficiently do certain simple operations on thousands of rows in a single statement; use SQL for that. Beyond that, use your programming language.