Split Wide, Denormalized Table Into Normalized Structure

Thanks for reading.

This is pretty long, hopefully it isn't rambling.

I'm building a system that imports data from several source, Excel files, text files, Access databases, etc. using DTS. The entire process revolved around MS SQL Server, by the way.

I figured I would create denormalized tables that mirror the Excel and flat files, for example, in structure, import data to those, clean up and remove duplicates there, then break those out into my normalized table structure later.

Now I've finished the importing part (though this is going to happen once a week) and I'm onto breaking up the denormalized tables.

I'm hesitating because I'm not sure I've made the best decisions in terms of process, etc.

I've decided to use cursors to loop over the denormalized tables and use batch insert statements to push data out to the appropriate tables.

Any comments? Suggestions? All is welcome.

I'm specifically interested in hearing back on the way I've set up the intermediate, denormalized tables and how I'm breaking them up using cursors (step 2 of the process below). Still, all comments are welcome. As are suggestions for further reading.

Thanks again...

simplified example
(my denormalized tables are 20 - 30 colums wide)

denormalized table:
===================
name, address, city, state, cellphone, homephone


normalized tables:
==================

tblPerson [PK_person, name, age, height, weight]
tblAddress [PK_address, FK_person, street, city, state, zip, addressType]
tblContact [PK_contact, FK_person, data, contactType]


I'm breaking up the denormalized tables like this (*UNTESTED*):
=================================================

DECLARE @vars.... (one for each column in my normalized table structure, matching size and type)

DECLARE myCursor CURSOR
FAST_FORWARD FOR
SELECT name, address, city, state, cellphone, homephone
FROM _DNT_myWideTable
INTO

WHILE @@Fetch_Status = 0
BEGIN
-- grab the next row from the wide table
FETCH NEXT FROM myCursor
INTO @name, @address, @city, @state, @cellphone, @homephone


-- create the person first and get the ID with @@IDENTITY
INSERT INTO tblPerson (name) VALUES (@name)

SET @personID = @@IDENTITY


-- use that ID to coordinate inserts across other tables
INSERT INTO tblAddress (FK_person, address, city, state, addressType)
VALUES(@person, @address, @city, @state, 'HOME')

INSERT INTO tblContact (FK_person, data, contactType)
VALUES(@person, @cellphone, 'CELLPHONE')

INSERT INTO tblContact (FK_person, data, contactType)
VALUES(@person, @homephone, 'HOMEPHONE')

END