RE: SQL Table Design

As I recall, this is the difference between second normal form and third
normal form in Chris Date's book, the elimination of repetitive fields.
By all measures, modern database design dictates a subcategory table.
The subcategory table can reference itself, as in a bill of materials.
In other words, do not use the 10 category columns approach. Use one
category column.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Wintermute, Sharon
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 10:19 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: SQL Table Design

Ahh, the old normalization of data question. Which normal form you do
want to use?

IMNSHO, you should NOT use the 10 category columns approach and
normalize it.


Sharon Wintermute


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Perkins
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 10:09 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: SQL Table Design

Hello All,
I'm in the process of creating a table to store a category and a
subcategory. It's possible for there to be multiple levels of this
structure, e.g. a subcategory may have another subcategory.

One of my co-workers suggested we just make a table with 10 category
columns. I don't think I really like this idea, it seems to like "old"
database design. With a recursive SQL statement I can go up or down to
find the category hierarchy. To me this seems much more scalable.

So my question is, how are others handling this?

Thanks in advance,
--
James R. Perkins
http://twitter.com/the_jamezp
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