I'm sure there are lots of better answers than I could give, but, I'd suggest purchasing the following 3 books :
The Data Model Resource Book Silverston, Inmon, Graziano ISBN 0-471-15364-8 Data Model Patterns Hay ISBN 0-932633-29-3 SQL For Smarties Celko ISBN 1-55860-576-2 I think the first prove a tremendous benefit to you, especially in helping you with questions such as this. The others have also proven beneficial to me in my efforts. Later, Steve in Memphis > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of ELOEN > Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 6:25 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Design subject > > > > Table CUSTOMERS (CUST_ID,...), table REPRESENTATIVES > (REPR_ID,....) with 1:m > (optional) relation > > so 1 customer may have none,1 or many representatives > > there is also table PAYMENTS > > now what is the best design according to normalization: > > 1. PAYMENT (PAYMNT_ID,KIND_ID,WHO_ID,..) > with KIND_ID = 'C' for CUSTOMERS, 'R' for REPRESENTATIVES) > and WHO_ID = CUST_ID or REPR_ID respectively > > 2. tables PAYCUST (PAYCUST_ID,CUST_ID,...) and PAYREPR > (PAYREPR_ID,REPR_ID,..) for each group of data > > never managed to solve this > > TIA > > P.Kontos > Athens, Greece > > ================================================ > TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: > Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l > ================================================ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l > ================================================ > TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: > http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/ > ================================================ TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l ================================================ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l ================================================ TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/
