Will Tomlinson wrote: >>This is the exact reason I gave it ago with singular table names. tblPeople, >>with a PK of PersonID or PeopleID didn't sit too well, tblPersons didn't >>seem right either. >> >> > > >When I was reading through this thread, I started asking myself who names a >table tblpeople anyway? lol! I know I have less experience than most on the >list, but I've never built a tblperson or tblpeople. What does tblperson >represent? > >tbldoctors >tbllawyers >tbladministrators >tblemployees >tblusers > >Where would I use tblperson and need to make it plural anyway? What does >tblperson represent? Wouldn't you use something more specific? > > Nope. You use something generic. If you have tblDoctor, tblAdmin, tblLawyers, what happens when you have another type of job? Say nurses or barristers? You'd have to create another table and a whole bunch more logic to handle them within your application.
If you use something more generic then you can add as many "jobs" as you like with only minor changes to your application logic to handle the additional types. tblEmployee is ok as is tblUser, because these are both fairly generic, allowing you to add as many employees or users as you like and then apply a job title/description to an employee (director, secretary, doctor, nurse) and roles to users (user, administrator, moderator). Below is an example of storing a person's details and being able to assign them to multiple "types". If you only wanted to allow a person to have one "type" you would place "PersonTypeID" in tblPerson as a foreign key. tblPerson ======= PersonID Name Address TelNo lnkPerson2PersonType =========== PersonID PersonTypeID tblPersonType ========== PersonTypeID Title Description tblPerson ---------- PersonID Name Address TelNo 1 Stephen Moretti Newcastle Upon Tyne 0845 226 2896 tblPersonType --------------- PersonID Title Description 1 Director Company Director 2 Developer ColdFusion Developer lnkPerson2PersonType ------------------------ PersonID PersonTypeID 1 1 1 2 Now with tblPersonType, I can add as many types as are needed by the application and add more when I realise I've missed some. I can be anything I want, doctor, nurse, evil genius..... just by adding the type to the table and linking the person to the new type. PersonID Title Description 3 Evil Genius Austin Power's latest nemesis lnkPerson2PersonType ------------------------ PersonID PersonTypeID 1 3 I hope that makes sense. Regards Stephen PS. Please excuse the "evil genius" stuff.... Having one of those mornings..... :D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:200661 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
