| Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid | |
 |
 | |||
| Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid | |
|
| |||
Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> RE: opinions on naming primary keys in new database
What Tim said :)
This is basically how I name columns.. primary key is identified, not by some generic name like "id" but by the name I'd use for it in the foreign key reference.
>From: "Tim Sawmiller" <sawmillert_at_state.mi.us>
>Reply-To: ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
>Subject: RE: opinions on naming primary keys in new database
>Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 09:11:05 -0800
>
>I like leaving prefixes off the column names, except for primary keys.
>There I used the table short name, or alias, followed by 'id. So for the
>CUSTOMER table, I'd use CUST_ID. This same column name would be used in
>child tables as the FK reference.
>
> >>> PaulB_at_instipro.com 03/08/01 11:47AM >>>
>I agree with Hugh's approach. I don't like redundancy (a fully-qualified
>reference to a column describes it fully), nor embedding the object type
>name in an object name (e.g., "data_tablespace"). IMHO, too few developers
>and DBA's give enough thought to the names they give their database
>objects.
>
>
>Paul Baumgartel
>InstiPro, Inc.
>paul.baumgartel_at_instipro.com
>212 813-0829 x103 (office)
>917 549-4717 (mobile)
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 11:11 AM
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>Hugh,
>
>You are right that Richard Barker says not to use an entity name as part of
>an attribute name. (CASE*METHOD Entity Relationship Moddelling, by Richard
>Barker, page 3-9) And I believe Oracle still gives out this book in their
>Data Modeling class.
>
>I have seen databases that completely follow this method and others that
>include the table name in every column. As far as naming your primary key
>as a column called 'key', I don't like it either.
>
>I am also curious to see what is the preference of other list members.
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Jeff Cox
>IPS-Sendero
>Scottsdale, AZ
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 4:58 PM
>To: oracledba_at_lazydba.com
>
>
>Hello,
>
>I wanted to get the lists opinion on the preference of naming primary keys.
>
>Please see my example below with the CUSTOMER table, and the customer TYPE
>table. The column 'type_id' is a foreign key referencing the TYPE table.
>This is just an example to get opinions.
>
>
>CUST TYPE
>+---------+ +------+
>| id | |id |
>| name | |desc |
>| type_id |>------| |
>+---------+ +------+
>
>
>I like having my primary keys called id, and not including the table names
>in the columns of the original table. For example, in the CUST table, we
>would not have 'cust_id' as the primary key, we would just call it 'id'.
>But having 'type_id' as a column of the CUST table is okay because that is
>a
>foreign key, and not an attribute of the original CUST entity.
>
>Including the table name in a column that is not a foreign key, I believe,
>is redundant and not necessary. (I also remember reading this in a Richard
>Barker book.)
>
>All foreign keys would then have the standard of table_column, with the
>exception of tables with multiple foreign keys from the same table, and
>recursive relationships - which would then just include a more descriptive
>table_column name.
>
>This way, when you do a describe on a table, you will immediately be able
>to
>tell what are the foreign keys, and the primary keys. (I also believe in
>surrogate keys for most tables, so the problem of having a composite key is
>not an issue here.) I think that this will later make the database easier
>to understand to new DBAs and duhvelopers, which would have been nice when
>I
>worked on my first database.
>
>My questions:
>
>1) What is your preference with primary and foreign keys - if you could
>design a database from scratch?
>
>2) Am I off my rocker thinking that this is a good way to design a
>database?
>
>3) We have a developer who wants to name all of our primary keys, 'key',
>and
>I am trying to convince her that we should use 'id' or 'nbr' instead. Has
>anyone ever used 'key' as the primary key of a table? This seems like it
>would be confusing when
>
>All constructive criticism is welcomed.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Hugh
>
>
>
>--------
>Think you know someone who can answer the above question? Forward it to
>them!
>to unsubscribe, send a blank email to oracledba-unsubscribe_at_LAZYDBA.com
>to subscribe send a blank email to oracledba-subscribe_at_LAZYDBA.com
>Visit the list archive: http://www.LAZYDBA.com/odbareadmail.pl
>
>--
>Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
>--
>Author: Jeff Cox
> INET: jeff.cox_at_ips-sendero.com
>
>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: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (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).
>--
>Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
>--
>Author: Paul Baumgartel
> INET: PaulB_at_instipro.com
>
>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: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (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).
>--
>Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
>--
>Author: Tim Sawmiller
> INET: sawmillert_at_state.mi.us
>
>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: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (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).
-- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Rachel Carmichael INET: carmichr_at_hotmail.com 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: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (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).Received on Thu Mar 08 2001 - 12:56:53 CST
 |
 |