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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-11T15:25:33+00:00

I’m questioning my MySQL database best practices right now and trying to figure this

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I’m questioning my MySQL database best practices right now and trying to figure this out. I have a form that users will fill out YES/NO and in case of YES, there’s an extra field to explain themselves. There’s about 36 fields, and the table would be 1>1. Say 15 fields apply to (A) user, 8 apply to (B) user, 8 to (C) user and 5 apply to (D) user. Would it be better to have separate tables with 15, 8, 8 and 5 fields or one big 36 field table with some empty fields? I’m looking for performance and normalization.

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  1. Editorial Team

    In my option, the answer depends on whether the list will ever change. If not, one wide table will be “cleaner” (easier to query, etc). If you need to change the list, trying to rebuild a large existing table in MySQL is a nightmare, so you’re better off with an attribute table.

    Hope that helps.

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