Re: Pizza Example

In message <AvmdnY34APfIAezdRVn-gg_at_comcast.com>, Laconic2 <laconic2_at_comcast.net> writes
>
>Or it might have been invented at the time the logical model was converted
>to a physical model, for reasons like storage capacity or throughput
>(again, an assumption).
>
>Also, what's the big deal? If thirty turns out to be too low, then just
>ALTER the column to make it forty. A good RDBMS will do that for you, and
>pad the existing data with blanks. Of course that could wreak havoc with
>data independence, when users of the data try to stuff a 40 character
>data value into a 30 character working storage variable. But you can't have
>everything, can you?
>
Or, at the design stage, you simply accept the fact that length is variable, and expect your database to be clever enough to cope :-)

Constrain the display width, but don't apply artificial constraints to data.

Cheers,
Wol

-- 
Anthony W. Youngman - wol at thewolery dot demon dot co dot uk
HEX wondered how much he should tell the Wizards. He felt it would not be a
good idea to burden them with too much input. Hex always thought of his reports
as Lies-to-People.
The Science of Discworld : (c) Terry Pratchett 1999