Re: Table design decision

Terry Dykstra wrote:
> If only one column out of 50 is ever used for a given row, why not change
> the table to be something like:
>
> col1,
> col2,
> ...
> col_type where col_type has a value of 1,2,3,..49,50 (or something like
> that to indicate
> colx
>
> with col_type and colx used in the FK.
>
> Terry Dykstra
> Canadian Forest Oil Ltd.

If you're suggesting a generic key accompanied by another column that tells you which table the key refers to for that particular row, I don't think you could implement that as an actual foreign key.

btw what on Earth requires an arc with 50 mutally exclusive parents? Received on Wed Jan 11 2006 - 17:24:35 CST