Number of fields in Main Table

J

Judi

I read on another answer somewhere on this site that tables with more than 20
fields are too complicated. Is this the general consensus?

If so, I have a doozy, my database has 61 fields on the main table. I am
looking at them to see if I can get rid of any, which I am sure I can. I
inherited this monster, so I don't claim responsibility, but I am now in
charge of it, so I want to make it WAY more usable and useful.

If anyone thinks they can help me, I would love get some help on fixing this
table.
 
J

John W. Vinson

I read on another answer somewhere on this site that tables with more than 20
fields are too complicated. Is this the general consensus?

If so, I have a doozy, my database has 61 fields on the main table. I am
looking at them to see if I can get rid of any, which I am sure I can. I
inherited this monster, so I don't claim responsibility, but I am now in
charge of it, so I want to make it WAY more usable and useful.

If anyone thinks they can help me, I would love get some help on fixing this
table.
Click to expand...

I've used (reluctantly!) a couple of 60+ field tables. It *can* be valid, for
complex Entities with many independent attributes.

What you need to worry about is hidden one-to-many relationships. If your
table has fields with names like "August", "September", "October", or
"Agent1", "Agent2", "Agent007" - you're committing spreadsheet.

It's not so much a matter of "getting rid of" fields as moving the data into a
properly normalized structure. "Fields are expensive, records are cheap"; you
may be able to move some of this data into a tall-thin table related one to
many to your main table.

If you'ld like help doing so, perhaps you could post a few relevant fieldnames
and some indication of the nature of the data they contain.
 
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