RE: Normalization was Left AS/400 and Returned

> From: Fisher, Don
> 
> I never stated an array field is too hard to understand, Joe.  I
stated an
> array field adds work to understand the logic.

Splittin' hairs, I think.  Everything is degrees of difficulty, Don.  Is
it too hard for your programmers or not?

> This is probably more a discussion of personal preference rather than
> having
> a right or wrong answer.  I understand your preference for an array,
but
> I'd
> prefer not using an array because I believe it to be less
straightforward
> than using a date keyed file.

And I understand your preference.  Checking every date by doing a CHAIN
or SETLL on a file is easy.  I think part of my bias is that I come from
a scheduling background, which means I need information for periods,
rather than single days.  I might have to schedule an operation to run
over 10 days, and thus I'll have to know all the working days.  By
reading a one-year array once, I'm covered and I can schedule all the
work for that item.

With a one-record per date approach, I'll be doing lots of I/O, over and
over again (unless I read the data from the file into an array, at which
point your argument about how hard it is becomes moot).

I guess my point is that I think you need to look not only at the data
but also at how it is used when determining the normalization of a
database.

Joe