From: "Rudi Starcevic" <rudi@oasis.net.au>
To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Database design - AGAIN
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 08:15:03 +1000
Message-Id: <20030624221503.M77696@oasis.net.au>
In-Reply-To: <200306240838.09929.jgardner@jonathangardner.net>
References: <3EF7DF74.40700@oasis.net.au>
	<200306240838.09929.jgardner@jonathangardner.net>
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Josh, Jonathan ..

Thanks for your replies.
You mail was exactly what I was hoping for - your best practise opinion.

I do have a grasp of the theory involved with SQL but your input on
those 'other' constraints like time, language, longevity etc was just
what I was interested in.

I'll be using smaller tables with appropriate join tables and PHP.
Just for interests sake I'll be using Dia to plan the schema. 
I prefer to use the UML drawing tools instead of the ER ones.

Thank you.
Best regards
Rudi.


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> On Monday 23 June 2003 22:19, Rudi Starcevic wrote:
> > I"m not sure whether to have on larger table or 2 smaller one with a
> > join table.
> 
> Theory says you are better off with the join tables. Practical 
> reality agrees with this. It takes a bit more work to write your 
> select statements, but the data is better for at least these two reasons:
> 	1) You won't have a lot of empty columns.
> 	2) You will be able to add, rename, and remove features pretty easily.
> There are more reasons, but they are not immediately obvious to the 
> untrained DBA. (Words like "data integrity" and "data consistency" 
> start to mean things when you become trained.)
> 
> With that said, it sounds like you are really intermediate with 
> database design. If you were a beginner, and if you barely 
> understood what a table was, (and if you were the guy who would be 
> using it all the time,) I would probably suggest you use the former 
> method. It will work pretty well until you want to add more features 
> or until you start worrying about your database size. At that point, 
> I would explain how and why to use joins, and how to convert your 
> data over to the new design.
> 
> - -- 
> Jonathan Gardner <jgardner@jonathangardner.net>
> (was jgardn@alumni.washington.edu)
> Live Free, Use Linux!
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