Posted by Shwetabh on 02/17/06 09:34

Erland Sommarskog wrote:
> Shwetabh (shwetabhgoel@gmail.com) writes:
> > Well, apparently, since the dataabse will be used for Label printing,
> > the DBA has to change the schema by adding new fields according to the
> > requirements. Do you suggest instead of normalising the database I
> > should create a single table which holds all the fields which will be
> > used for label? Or is thr some better way out. Now, since I am
> > converting legacy database, it should be possible to add data to the
> > table through a single query which I cannot really foresee happening in
> > a normalised database.
> > What do u suggest?
>
> Since I don't have the full story, but just some selected bits and pieces,
> maybe I should not suggest anything.
>
> Generally, SELECT * is bad. You talk about converting a legacy database,
> but I don't know if that database is even SQL Server. And how your
> question about relational database fits into this, I don't really see.
>
> If you could give a more complete picture of what you are up to, it
> might be easier to give better advice.
>
> --
> Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
>
> Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/books.mspx
> Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx

Ok,here are the details:

I am supposed to convert DBASE IV data to MS SQL server 2000 database.
Now, there are about 40 DBASE tables each of which contains fields
ranging
from 3 to 30. Most of the fields hold either NULL values or redundant
data. In all these tables and fields, there is only one common field
"Partnum".
Now earlier, this DBASE database was used by a labelling software
"Easylabel". It used to
retrieve the neccessary data using the field "Partnum". This software
will connect to
SQL server and retrieve the data when conversion process is complete.

Now my dillema is that should I just create a database containing all
the fields in a single
table or should I try to create relationships among different data
objects. If I put them in a single table, will the system take a
performance hit when accessing data?
If I create relationships, how can I retrieve the data from tables
where information about new fields added by users without using select
*..?

I hope I made myself clear. If any doubts, plz let me know.

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