SQL Server Infernals – Circle 1: Undernormalizers

There’s a special place in the SQL Server Hell for those who design their schema without following the Best Practices. In this first episode of SQL Server Infernals, we will explore together the Row of the Poor Schema Designers, also known as “undernormalizers”.

What they say in Heaven

In Heaven, where all Best Practices are followed and everything runs smoothly while angels sing, they design their databases following the rules of normalization. Once upon a time, there was a man who spent a considerable amount of his life working on defining the rules of the relational model. That man was Edgar Codd.

Mr. Codd laid down the rules of normalization, which are known as “normal forms”. The normal forms define the attributes of a well-designed database schema. While there are more normal forms, it is widely accepted that a schema is normalized when it follows the first three normal…