Guidelines for Ideal Table Design

1. Each table should represents a single theme or subject

2. Tables should include primary keys that uniquely identify each record of each table

3. Avoid the use of smart keys that attempt to embed meaning into primary keys (keys should be meaningless)

4. The domain of primary keys should be large enough to accommodate the identification of unique rows for the entire potential universe of records

5. A primary key should be a unique, random or sequential collection of alphabetic, numeric or alphanumeric characters

6. Use the suffix ID in constructing primary keys to ensure they are readily identifiable.

7. Tables should not contain multipart fields

8. Tables should not contain multivalued fields

9. Tables should not contain calculated or derived fields

10. Tables should not contain unnecessary duplicate fields

11. There should be a minimum amount of redundant data

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