In regards to 1, you had to mangle syntax to write that sentence. It should
read:
1. In set theory, sets are given plural names because they are <a>
*collection* of entities.
Which of course could really be that they are given singular names because
they are a single set.
- Calvin
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Gaughan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:57 AM
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Re: Table name - Singular or plural?
<snip>
Ok, how's this:
1. In set theory, sets are given plural names because they are
*collection* of entities.
2. A set of "Doctors" is not a "Doctor", hence the "is a" argument is
moot.
3. There are times when singular names are appropriate, albeit not
often. However, these are only when the singular name refers to the
table as opposed to what it contains. A trivial (read "stupid")
example that springs to mind is some of the code behind my website.
I have a table called "linklog" that contains all the entries of my
linklog. I could have called this "links", but at the time that
didn't feel right. The URLs, as it happens, are the primary keys,
seeing as they're immutable. And no, textual keys are just as fast
as numeric ones.
Similarly, you might have a table called "catalogue", that contains
a product catalogue. Of course, "products" would probably be a
better name.
But when it comes down to it, this is all convention. I pluralise
because bits of SQL like "SELECT ... FROM products ...", "INSERT INTO
products ...", "UPDATE products ...", and "DELETE FROM products ..."
read better than me because these work on sets of entities as opposed
to singular entities. When it comes down to it, how it "sounds" is
really the only way of justifying it.
K.
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