Re: In an RDBMS, what does "Data" mean?
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 09:04:32 -0400
Message-ID: <NOidnWPiwrYZpEndRVn-tw_at_comcast.com>
"Tony" <andrewst_at_onetel.net.uk> wrote in message
news:c0e3f26e.0406190347.11b72762_at_posting.google.com...
> "Anthony W. Youngman" <wol_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk> wrote in message > >
Oddly enough, I've just been trying to get to grips with our new SQL
> > database. And I asked "how do I know which tables belong together?" I
> > was told that, given an individual table, I couldn't find out which
> > other tables "join"ed to it. I "just had to know".
>
> Either the person you asked was an idiot, or you have a crap SQL DBMS,
> or both. What DBMS is it? Every SQL DBMS I know has a data
> dictionary that shows the RI constraints between the tables, which
> gives you what you need. Of course, some application-centric idiot
> "designers" don't bother to define these, because the application
> "knows".
I ran into one of those, a few years back. It was the "Great Plains" order processing system for dotcoms. No constraints in the DB, although the DBMS supports them. Rows in the same table that represented different "record types", depending on a value in one of the columns. Sets formed by doubly linked lists of foreign keys. No documentation. The whole nine yards.
The programmers told me it was "very advanced". Yeah, right. Received on Sat Jun 19 2004 - 15:04:32 CEST