Can we furthur Normalize this Sql Table
Structue is
Primary key is ID,Date,NAme,Type
ID Date Name Type Value
-----------------------------------------------------
1 08/15/2010 Rating A+ 10
1 08/15/2010 Rating A- 10
1 08/15/2010 Composition MultipleChoice 33
1 08/15/2010 Composition YESNO 33
1 08/15/2010 Composition Fillin 33
1 08/16/2010 Rating A+ 30
1 08/16/2010 Rating A- 10
1 08/16/2010 Composition MultipleChoice 25
1 08/16/2010 Composition YESNO 50
1 08/16/2010 Composition Fillin 25
and so on
This looks suspiciously like a combination EAV table and history table. What is its true purpose? What are the associated tables?
Based on the limited information given, you would normalize it by turning it into a pure history table. The Rating and Composition should not be split across rows but should be in decently-named columns. Something like so:
ID Date Rating_A+ Rating_A- MultipleChoicePercent YESNOPercent FillinPercent
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 08/15/2010 10.0 10.0 33.3 33.3 33.3
1 08/16/2010 30.0 10.0 25.0 50.0 25.0
.
This will allow for simpler and faster: Check constraints, indexes, and queries.