Should we create a database structure with a minimum number of tables? Should it be designed in a way that everything stays in one place or is it okay to have more tables? Will it in anyway affect anything? I am asking this question because a friend of mine modified some database structure in mediaWiki. In the end, instead of 20 tables he was using only 8, and it took him 8 months to do that (it was his college assignment). EDIT I am concluding the answer as: size of the tables does NOT matter, until the case is exceptional; in which case the denormalization may help. Thanks to everyone for the answers.