Question

I like to normalize things the most I can in a database. This isn’t obviously the best thing for performance, but it helps with flexibility, reporting, etc. I’ve found it hard to justify in a recent case though which has caused me to build a model that has 25 fields in it. Is this “too big”? Or, is that quite normal. Of course the obvious answer is, “Whatever works best for you scenario.”, but I intend to sell the software eventually, and I want whoever buys it to like the code (pay more for it).

Answer 1

Well, like you said: does it work in your scenario?

But to answer your question in a more appropriate way: it really depends. Since you haven’t provided any information about the field you define in your model, it’s hard for us to guess if it’s normal.

If it really bothers you, you can try to create some extra models. For example:

class User(model):
    username = Charfield()

    # Settings for this user
    showdebug = Boolean()
    regexsearch = Boolean()
    .....
    colour = HexColor()

could become:

class UserSettings(model):
    showdebug = Boolean()
    regexsearch = Boolean()
    ......
    colour = HexColor()

class User(model):
    username = Charfield()

    settings = ForeignKey(UserSettings)