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

In message <40ce486e$0$568$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl>, mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org> writes
>> To get the invoice data
>> LIST INVOICES BY @ID field-names
>> and to get a listing of what's shipped grouped by stock code
>> LIST INVOICES BY.EXP STOCK-CODE field-names.
>> In other words, I've just changed the sort criteria from the primary
>>single-valued invoice number to the multi-valued stock code, and the
>>db will chuck a different view of the data at me.
>
>The logistic manager is not iterested in INVOICES.
>Why do you bother her with INVOICES? She wants to see
>SHELVES, WAREHOUSES, ORDERQUANTITIES, PACKLISTS (just adapting
>to your shouting habit ;-)

:-) I'm just so used to working in upper case within the db, that it makes sense to use upper case when referring to MV terms. Just like I always quote "table", "row", "column" etc when I'm trying to describe MV in relational terms. It's a convenient convention.

As for the logistics manager, yes why should she be interested in invoices (apart from checking that what was billed actually arrived, or what was sent actually got billed). I would guess that in her STOCK file she will have attributes like SHELF, QUANTITY and so on. What's in stock is different data to what's been billed :-) so it lives in a different FILE :-) 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