Member Avatar for tinymark

Hello to everyone. I have an old flat database with a couple of hundred entries that I want to convert to a relational design. It was a user database for simple login and some preferences. I would like to know if there is a simple way to convert from one to the other. My idea was to dump the database for the data from the couple of tables and apply some presto chango regex and reload into the new table structure.

The way the old design was done was to have multiple tables with all unique information. When you wanted something you just joined them back into the one big flat table that they really were.

My problem is that I'm fine with flat databases. I'm just getting into INNODB. Any advise or sage words of wisdom you can provide will be appreciated. I know very little about triggers and stored procedures. Thanks in advance.

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Member Avatar for smantscheff

What is your aim? If you want to convert some old flat file to MySQL without disturbing much of your application, just export it to CSV and import it into the new table.
If you want to have a clean relational setup, go by the book: eliminate functional dependencies in the table setup and store each piece of information only once.
To get more help, show the table setup.

Member Avatar for tinymark

Thank you for your response, @smantscheff. I want a clean relational setup. When I get going I will post the code.

The aim is to learn relational database design. This old database is ideal for playing with. It's not in use anymore. I want to change things like the method of storing contact information. Multiple phone numbers meant multiple entries in this design.

In the relational design I would have a foreign key relationship to a contact table. I understand that this is the preferred method. From the initial look I only have the one, one-to-many relationship, so I shouldn't get too swamped.;)

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