Re: Best way to reconcile data

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hasta_l3_at_hotmail.com wrote:
> Assume we have a table with orders, and obviously
> have another child table with order lines. Users do
> routinely - daily - add and update orders. Such
> data awe call live data.
>
> Assume further that we have a third table with
> products (eg wine, bread, ...). That table is rarely
> changed, perhaps a few times in a month. Such
> data we call setup data.
>
> An order line represents an ordered quantity of
> a product. It therefore has a foreign key to the
> product table.
>

In addition to earlier post:
there is a huge danger in that, especially when you allow a third process to alter you "set up data".

You may not, should not and cannot alter the setup data - it will ruin whatever you have on history; accounting will surely love you for the fact the bills now have completely different item descriptions.

Or none at all, or a nice "ERROR: NO DATA FOUND".

Guess who's looking for a job.

At all times, you must keep the data that has been used "as-is". Alterations should be via some sort of history table: at the time you ordered item 123, it was called OWS. Since date x, it was renamed OWA. After that, ever since date z, it is known as WAS. It is now known as iAS.
(actually, 'they' changed the item numbers as well, so item 123 still is OWS, even though it is decommissioned long time.)
- --
Regards,
Frank van Bortel

Top-posting is one way to shut me up...
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-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Received on Fri Jun 08 2007 - 14:16:30 CDT