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Asked: 2026-06-04T02:20:50+00:00

I don’t usually design databases, so I’m having some doubts about how to normalize

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I don’t usually design databases, so I’m having some doubts about how to normalize (or not) a table for registering users. The fields I’m having doubts are:

  • locationTown: I plan to normalize for countries, and have a separate table for it, but should I do the same for towns? I guess users would type this in when registering, and not choosing from a dropdown. Can one normalize when the input may be coming from users?
  • maritalStatus: I would have a choice of about 5 or so different statuses.

Also, does anyone know of a good place to find real world database schema/normalizing examples?

Thanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    • locationTown – just store it directly inside user table. Otherwise you will have to search for existing town, taking typos and code case into account. Also some people use non-standard characters and languages (Kraków vs. Krakow vs. Cracow, see also: romanization). If you really want to have a table with towns, at least provide auto-complete box so the users are more likely choosing existing town. Otherwise prepare for lots of duplicates or almost duplicates.

    • maritalStatus – this in the other hand should be in a separate table. Or more accurately: use single character or a number to represent marital status. An extra table mapping this to human-readable form is just for convenience (remember about i18n) and foreign key constraint makes sure incorrect status aren’t used.

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