Re: Large databases

Okay - I forgot to do that funny little thing that represents tongue in cheek; or perhaps the other one with frizzy hair that represents mad scientist cackling insanely.

Regards

Jonathan Lewis
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk

  The educated person is not the person
  who can answer the questions, but the
  person who can question the answers -- T. Schick Jr

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The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html

• Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com> Sent: 16 April 2003 22:54

> No, no, no, its my tailor's database and he only measures once and
he
> won't be my tailor if I lose an arm (he adores symmetry). My point
is
> that it is not possible to determine if a design is normalized
unless
> you know something about the business requirements you are designing
to.
> Some of your "normalizations" introduce attributes that may or may
not
> be tracked. If I have a unique set of attributes that are dependent
on
> my surrogate key and do not contain repeating groups, and are not
> partially dependant on the key, then I'm third normal. And only the
> application requirements can determine what the attributes desired
are,
> the desired frequency of collection, and hence what the definition
of
> normal will be. If you redefine the problem domian of course you
can
> make virtually any attribute a repeating group merely by adding
history.
> Which is largely what you did. My claim is that requirements ->
> attributes -> entities -> keys -> normalization.
>
> I admit that you were right on the age one, so to replace it my
tailor
> sells running shoes to me over the phone and so wants to track
> PRONATION_CD VARCHAR2(3) which he will measure as required but he
only
> cares about the current value. Still over 20 attributes and
normalized
> in light of the requirements.
>
> Allan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 4:19 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>
> Note inline
>
> Regards
>
> Jonathan Lewis
> http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk
>
> The educated person is not the person
> who can answer the questions, but the
> person who can question the answers -- T. Schick Jr
>
>
> One-day tutorials:
> http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/tutorial.html
>
> ____UK_______April 22nd
> ____USA_(FL)_May 2nd
> ____Denmark__May 21-23rd
> ____Sweden___June
> ____Finland__September
> ____Norway___September
>
> Three-day seminar:
> see http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/seminar.html
> ____UK_(Manchester)_May x 2
> ____Estonia___June (provisional)
> ____Australia_June (provisional)
> ____USA_(CA, TX)_August
>
> The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ
> http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> Sent: 16 April 2003 21:43
>
>
> > CREATE TABLE PERSON (
> > PERSON_ID NUMBER,
> > FNAME VARCHAR2(20),
> > MNAME VARCHAR2(20),
> > LNAME VARCHAR2(30),
>
> Denormalize names - First/Middle/Last is not the only
option:
> (person_id, name_position, name)
>
>
> > RACE_ID NUMBER(25), /*allows for proliferation
> > of pc categories */
> Denomralize:
> (person_id, race_id, percentage)
>
>
> > BIRTH_DATE DATE,
> > AGE NUMBER(3),
> Derived information - eliminate
>
> > HANDEDNESS CHAR(1),
> > SEX CHAR(1),
> Denormalize:
> (person_id, date_form, sex)
>
> > HEIGHT NUMBER(3),
> Denomralize
> (person_id, date_measured, height)
>
> > WEIGHT NUMBER(3),
> as above
>
> > WAIST NUMBER(2),
> as above
>
> > INSEAM NUMBER(2),
> (person_id, left_right, date_measured, length)
>
> > COLLAR NUMBER(2),
> as waist
>
> > ARM_LEN VARCHAR2(5),
> as inseam
>
> > HAT_SIZE VARCHAR2(4),
> as waist
>
> > SHOE_SIZE VARCHAR2(5),
> as inseam
>
> > EYE_COLOR_CD VARCHAR2(3),
> (person_id, left_right, colour_code)
>
> > HAIR_COLOR_CD VARCHAR2(3),
> (person_id, date_measured, colour_code)
>
> > MARRIED CHAR(1),
> (person_id, date_from, status)
>
> > EDUCATION_CD NUMBER(1),
> (person_id, date_achieved, code)
> > )
> >
>
> which brings us down to:
> person_id
> birth_date
> handedness -- (but what if you lost your arm, and learned ?!)
>
> Um !
>

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Jonathan Lewis
  INET: jonathan_at_jlcomp.demon.co.uk

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