Ok, let me try to say something intelligent about the 1-dimensional case. As has already been noted, the normal Noetherian 1-dimensional rings are finite products of Dedekind domains. So what about the non-normal case (say for reduced rings)? <h2>Pass to the normalization</h2> Suppose that $R$ is an excellent purely 1-dimensional reduced ring. Let $R^{\mathrm{N}}$ be the normalization. So we know that $R^{\mathrm{N}}$ is a finite product of Dedekind domains. How do we reconstruct $R$ from it? It follows that $R$ is always the pullback of a diagram $\{ R^{\mathrm{N}} \to R^{\mathrm{N}}/I \leftarrow S \}$ where $R^{\mathrm{N}}/I$ and $S$ are zero-dimensional (which say we've already classified) and the map $S \to R^{\mathrm{N}}/I$ is injective. To see this, [see my answer here][1] and [my answer here][2]. On the other hand, if $A$ is Noetherian normal and purely 1-dimensional, $A/I$ and $B$ are zero dimensional, and $B \to A/I$ is injective, then $\{ A \to A/I \leftarrow B \}$ gives you a 1-dimensional reduced Noetherian ring. So this is at some level a classification (in the second answer, a canonical choice of the $A/I$ and $B$ is given). On the other hand, if the map $B \to A/I$ is *not* injective, then this should actually classify 1-dimensional rings that are generically reduced. <h2>Two dimension and higher</h2> I think is essentially hopeless. :-( [1]: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/109395/is-there-a-geometric-intuition-underlying-the-notion-of-normal-varieties/109486#109486 [2]: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/186406/obtaining-non-normal-varieties-by-pushout/186650#186650