More than 4 tables? Gd thing or bad thing?

[2 Advanced]

Hi, im currently under going a Driving school project database. I have the following tables, Client, Instructor, Lesson and Lesson Type. However i feel like i want to go into more depth, e.g. make tables like recording sections of theory and practical tests, etc.

Currently my database with 4 tables is in 3rd normal form.. but say if i had 10 tables linking via relationship in query, what normal form is this? Is this gd practice or bad practice?

This has been going through my head lately and im wanting to get take alot into consideration for my project. This might be absurd question to say in the forum but hope anyone can help me and explanation for me.

Thanks and much appreciated!

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

The mistake most people make is by trying to put too much information into one table, you are much better off having lots of tables.

The most important thing is to design your tables so that they handle data in a vertical manner, not a horizontal manner.

I would suggest you have a look at this example here to get an idea of what I mean.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

really its a bit of a tautology - you need however many tables you need, based on the data you are trynig to model

Client, Instructor, Lesson and Lesson Type

the tables you have seem fine, but it depends how far you want to take it -

eg you arent recording the car used for the lesson, so perhaps you need a car table. if so, you would record make model regno etc in the car table, and perhaps just store the regno in the lesson table

you dont have a standard pricetable to price the lessons - perhaps you dont want to record the lesson cost, or perhaps you are recording the rate in the client table - you could have a standard price lookup table, storing the available rates

the thing is, introducing these extra tables, is still keeping your data in normal form - its not how many tables you have, its making sure your data is analysed correctly

 

[2 Advanced]

The mistake most people make is by trying to put too much information into one table, you are much better off having lots of tables.

The most important thing is to design your tables so that they handle data in a vertical manner, not a horizontal manner.

I would suggest you have a look at this example here to get an idea of what I mean.

Thanks for the info! Yup, especially the url on the How To.

 

[2 Advanced]

really its a bit of a tautology - you need however many tables you need, based on the data you are trynig to model

Client, Instructor, Lesson and Lesson Type

the tables you have seem fine, but it depends how far you want to take it -

eg you arent recording the car used for the lesson, so perhaps you need a car table. if so, you would record make model regno etc in the car table, and perhaps just store the regno in the lesson table

you dont have a standard pricetable to price the lessons - perhaps you dont want to record the lesson cost, or perhaps you are recording the rate in the client table - you could have a standard price lookup table, storing the available rates

the thing is, introducing these extra tables, is still keeping your data in normal form - its not how many tables you have, its making sure your data is analysed correctly

Thanks gemma-the-husky, very helpful!