Re: Naming Standards

tempest (fsgchi_at_sashimi.wwa.com) wrote:
: In article <3157171A.525A_at_msmail.state.ky.us>,
: Gary Rue <grue%fairoaks_at_msmail.state.ky.us> wrote:
: >I am developing database naming standards for Oracle and Sybase.
: >It would be nice to develop a global client/server standard,
: >regardless of the database engine. Our mainframe standards don't
: >exactly transcend neatly into the c/s world.
 

: Standards change from installation to installation.
 

: In the course of many application assignments I have found that the
: following guidelines work best for portability and maintainability.
 

: 1) Use lowercase letters and underscores. Not all languages are case
: sensitive, and the name update_date will be more portable than UpdateDate.

STRONGLY AGREE
: 2) Whenever possible, use full words. This is more typing the first time,
: but any programmer worth his/her salt can cut and paste. Anyone who has
: referred time, and time again, to a list of cryptic abbreviations will
: appreciate the wisdom of this. Also, it limits the need for end-user
: translations. At a glance you can tell what is in a field called
: service_representative_name. Can the same be said about srv_rep_nm
: (or is it serv_rep_nam?)

AGAIN, STRONGLY AGREE - many third party products will gracefully convert the fully spelled names to nicely Capitalized, undescrore removed titles for your columns, saves a HUGE amount of time throughout the life of the system to not have to look up anything and have all your tools do a fine job with the defaults...

: 3) If you must use abbreviations, be consistent in your abbreviation
: schema. One client had abbreviated "date" as "dt", "code as "cde",
: and "type" as "type". It was argued that a dictionary was available,
: but this type of inconsistency makes its usage more frequent than should
: be necessary.
 

: I would have preferred "date", "code" and "type". But, an alternate
: plan could have been "dat", "cod" and "typ" or "dt", "cd" and "tp"
: if the field length was critical.

The ONLY abbreviations I EVER use are:

  _dt as in hire_dt, 
  _tm as in completion_tm,
  _id as in employee_id,
  _no as in license_no

( BTW: I also use zip_code - I think 'zip' is some kinda   abbreviation... )

Also, I ALWAYS use these abbreviations where appropriate... I NEVER use _date or _time or _identifier, or number.

The ONLY abbreviation I use in table names:   _REF as in REPORT_REQUEST_STATUS_REF

: 4) No matter what convention you use, be prepared for resistance. This
: is especially true in shops where long-used mainframe database naming
: conventions are in place. The biggest reason for not using existing
: conventions, is when people must look up field "AAC84XY9" in a
: dictionary to tell you what it contains.

This kinda sh*t doubles your development time...

: The debate over naming conventions tends to take on the same religious
: fervor as operating system selection, windowing system selection, or
: package selection for GUI-based systems.

the rule should be CONSISTENCY. And IMO, the most consistent thing going is your native language. Not some arbitrary code scheme. ( I can hear the cries about oxymorons:: CONSISTENT = ENGLISH?  no -Im not crazy , well maybe a little.... )

l8r
(note the egregious use of obscure net abbrevs. in my post... just dont do it in a schema.)
:)

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