Good day, all: Am curious to hear opinions on how to model a child table that has multiple parent tables (i.e., foreign key to multiple parents)
Example: There's a table that stores Addresses (table ADDRESS) for both employees (table EMPLOYEE) and suppliers (table SUPPLIER). Each of these tables has a Primary Key field called ID. One way to set this up would be for the ADDRESS table to have 2 fields, EMPLOYEE_ID and SUPPLIER_ID, which would be mutually exclusive (i.e., one or the other, to indicate the parent record of the address). Another solutions if for the ADDRESS table to have two fields to indicate the parent table name and parent table pk value. The first method enables me (the dba) to create foreign keys from the address table to each of the parent tables to validate data. The second method does not enable me to create such foreign keys (leaving it to the developers to validate date and insure referential integrity) but would also easily facilitate the addition of other parent tables (e.g., CONTRACTOR, VENDOR, etc.) without altering the ADDRESS table itself. Any and all thoughts, comments, opinions, experiences are most welcome. Thanks! bill magaliff -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Magaliff, Bill INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
