Re: What is this model technique called

I have been reading this thread with interest, since I was thinking that EAV would work well for my application. It does seem to be quite popular for storing medical records, as can be seen by a quick google search on EAV.

I am working on an inventory system. However, I can assume very little about the type of data that is associated with inventory items. I know that every inventory item will have a manufacturer, model, and serial number, but I can't assume anything else.

For example, a monitor has a size and refresh rate, a computer has a certain size of memory and hardrive, etc.

If I don't store these as name/value pairs, how can I store them? One big string doesn't seem like a very good idea. I need to be able to perform stock counts too, so that I end up with a list saying, for example:

32   Monitors, 75hz Refresh Rate, 15"
16   Monitors, 75hz Refresh Rate, 17"
12   Monitors, 85Hz Refresh Rate, 15"