Too many Product tables.

[EHSteve]

Hello

I am currently working on a college assignment and think I may be going a bit overboard on the products tables or am unsure on how to relate them properly.
I want to split the products sold into categories

1) Hardware
2) Software
3) Online Training
4) On-site training

I currently have 10 tables, including the customer and staff tables. I am wondering if I should just include all of the different types of products available under one Table called Products or will I still be ok to have them on individual ones. Thanks in advance for any advice.

EHsteve

 

[pbaldy]

Normalization rules would typically dictate one table for products, with a field that would specify your 1-4 values.

 

[Cronk]

Or if the properties of the product are not all mutually exclusive, multiple fields, not multiple tables.