> In some cases you really have too much diversity of data structures and then it a NoSQL solution can be helpful. An example can come to mind: a notification e

> In some cases you really have too much diversity of data structures and then it a NoSQL solution can be helpful. An example can come to mind: a notification engine with tens of diverse notification format, each with their variable data and their localized display templates. Actually the relational database solution to that problem -- an arbitrary mix of various data types -- is to use a table with a variety of columns of different data types. For instance: Str1, Str2, Str3, Str4, Int1, Int2, Int3, etc. -- for as many as you need to store what you want to store. Obviously they should all be nullable and you would need a PK (and FK) to whatever it is you are storing it with. Next, you build views on top of this for each different type of data stored in this mix table, and in this view you then name each column sensibly. Using triggers on the view (or without: Oracle can figure out most inserts if the SELECT query is trivial) you can insert data into the mix table as well.