Re: Plural or singular table names

"Larry Coon" <lmcoon_at_nospam_cox.net> wrote in message news:3F521C3E.59DA_at_nospam_cox.net...
> Ray Cassick (home) wrote:
>
> > Well my company is going through its processes of writing company
standards
> > documents and we are at the age old question:
> >
> > "Should table names be in the plural or singular forms?"
> >
> > I figured that I would get a feel here for what the general consensus is
> > from the group.
> >
> > I am from the school that says plural because the table holds multiples
of
> > one thing. A table that holds employee information should be called
> > Employees.
> >
> > Some of the members of the group here simply think that the table should
not
> > be treated as holding a group of employees, but rather it should be
treated
> > as simply a place that contains information about THE employee.
>
> First of all, let's clarify the context. Are you talking
> about relational database systems?
>

Yes, I am. Both MS SQL and Oracle for now.

> If so, in an RDBMS a table represents a SET. The table that
> holds employee information represents the set of employees.
>
> It's always been my opinion that plural table names confuse
> the set with its contents. The employees are the contents
> of the set. They are many, so they are plural. But the set
> itself is singluar. There is only one set of employees -- the
> employee set is a set of employees. Confusing a set with the
> contents of the set is akin to confusing a table with a row.
>
> Since the table name refers to the table, and the table is a
> set, and the set (not the contents, but the set itself) is
> singular, then the table name should be singular.
>

Well I have to say that was probably the best explination I have seen as to WHY to go singular.

> > If someone can point me to a definitive standard (if one does exist) I
would
> > be most grateful.
>
> I don't know if one exists. I think it's mainly a religious
> argument. However, I don't think I've ever seen my argument
> above debunked.
>

The explaination is very good. I can't belive that there is not some standard set otu for this yet. There is for practiclly everythign else.

>
> Larry Coon
> University of California
> larry_at_assist.org
> and lmcoon_at_home.com
Received on Mon Sep 01 2003 - 07:36:49 CEST