Is there such a thing as too many tables?

Posted by Stacey on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Stacey
Published on 2010-03-20T05:08:50Z Indexed on 2010/03/20 5:11 UTC
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database-design

I've been searching stackoverflow for about an hour now and couldn't find any topics related, so I apologize if this is a duplicate question.

My inquery is this. Is there a point at which there are too many tables in a database? Even if the structure is well organized, thought out, and perfectly facilitates the design intent? I have a database that is quickly approaching 40 tables - about 10 main ones, and over 30 ancillary tables (junction tables, 'enumeration' tables, etc).

Am I just a bad developer - or should I be trying something different? It seems like so many to me, I'm really afraid at how it will impact the performance of the project. I have done a lot of condensing where possible, grouped similar things where possible, etc.

The database is built in MS-SQL 2008.

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