Singular. I myself use tbl Prefixes as I like it...no right or wrong here other than the fact the table names like Stephen noted should be generic rather than specific.
-----Original Message----- From: Calvin Ward [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 30 March 2005 13:21 To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Table name - Singular or plural? Now you're delving into normalization, which is loosely connected, but not tightly coupled, with table/view/etc. naming conventions. I prefer to use the singular myself for the reasons already listed such as; the name represents the collection, which is a singular set, references make more sense, plural forms are inconsistent. The only apparent benefit to plural is that you can be said to reference the entities (plural) inside the record set. But in my opinion, compared to the reasons to choose singular, that really isn't that compelling. I also don't like to use tbl as a prefix, however using a prefix for link tables, views, stored procedures, etc. seems fine. - Calvin -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Moretti (cfmaster) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 6:41 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Table name - Singular or plural? 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:4:200664 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
