Date: 01/17/05 (MySQL Communtiy)    Keywords: no keywords

If you have basic information used throughout the site, (such as name, password, etc,) and then some parts of the site need more information, (such as address, real names, country, phone number, tons of other info,) is is better to have one table with a small profile of necessary information and then a separate table of a more full profile, or is it better to have one big table and just call the data that you need out of it?

Would it be useful to split it up even further, like, a separate profile table for the online shop and one for the forums, both linked by uid to the necessary basic user table?

Which produces better performance on the server? Which is easier to administrate? Pro and con?

Thanks.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/mysql/45679.html