We've got a DB with over 40 tables all joined like crazy. Domain entity relationships, associative entity, role dependencies, you name it. It's a horrible design, over normalized in some parts and not enough in others but it's what we were given. In one situation there are six tables joined just to look up a person's phone number. Without a proper map there's no way to know what the relationships are. And it's not good to expect umpteen dozen applications to each be individually responsible for referential integrety on something like that.
-Kevin On 6/2/05, Matthew Small <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > For the past 8 years I've been working with SQL, I've never really > understood how to use the relational diagrams that use primary and foreign > keys. I just recently found the diagram tool in SQL and I like it for > laying out my new databases. However, even though I understand the > concepts, I don't really see the use of connecting the tables together in > these diagrams, of declaring the foreign and primary keys in these things. > In my programming, I know which tables are related to other tables, but why > is it good to tell the db what these relationships are? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Matthew Small > > Web Developer > > American City Business Journals > > 704-973-1045 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:159498 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
