Some of the tables have dozens of columns, with most of the rows being full of NULL values. This is generally addressed in a relational design with a star sche

Some of the tables have dozens of columns, with most of the rows being full of NULL values. This is generally addressed in a relational design with a star schema. First create a dimension table: CREATE TABLE person ( id BIGINT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL ) Then create fact tables: CREATE TABLE person_name ( person_id BIGINT REFERENCES person(id) UNIQUE, name VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL ) CREATE TABLE person_bank_details ( person_id BIGINT REFERENCES person(id) UNIQUE, bank_detail .... ) This avoids large numbers of rows containing nulls, but it violates a normal form. The mnemonic is that the table must contain the Key, the whole key, and nothing but the key, so help me Codd. Anytime you have a "REFERENCES table(pk) UNIQUE", you violate the "whole key" bit.