Oh man, this is just as bad as the Coding Horror post. Four lists: 1. Things which are relations -- relations -- 2. Things you can use to represent relatio

Oh man, this is just as bad as the Coding Horror post. Four lists: 1. Things which are relations -- relations -- 2. Things you can use to represent relations -- pen and paper -- perl/python/ruby/javascript/etc arrays & hashes -- c arrays & pointers -- SQL RDBMS tables -- 3. Things which the concept of relational normalization applies to -- relations -- 4. Things which the concept of relational normalization doesn't apply to -- pen and paper -- perl/python/ruby/javascript/etc arrays & hashes -- c arrays & pointers -- SQL RDBMS tables -- If it sounds like I'm being pedantic, realize that 3 things must be taken into account when talking about whether or not a group of SQL tables represents a normalized group of relations: table stucture, row structure, and access methods. It's possible to put an entire, fully 3rd normal form, relational database into a single SQL table.