Re: In an RDBMS, what does "Data" mean?

From: Laconic2 <laconic2_at_comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 15:09:27 -0400
Message-ID: <ltidnQoXXYsQoE7d4p2dnA@comcast.com>

"Anthony W. Youngman" <wol_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:gqffBeBl6x0AFwMQ_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk...

> No. Pick stores metadata in its dictionaries, and has a concept called
> ASSOCiation.
>
> With the pizza, there is no ASSOCiation defined between CHEESE and
> TOPPING, but with the invoice there is an ASSOCiation between ACCOUNT.NO
> and AMOUNT. That is, if the programmer has remembered to define it ...

That's a fair enough answer to the question as stated. Data is only self describing if somebody made it that way.

As far as "if the programmer has remembered to define it" goes, I find that no more, and no less, of a pitfall than the REFERENCES constraint in SQL. Received on Fri Jun 18 2004 - 14:09:27 CDT