Re: A Normalization Question

From: Ralph Becket <rafe_at_cs.mu.oz.au>
Date: 29 Jul 2004 18:17:38 -0700
Message-ID: <3638acfd.0407291717.3994e9ba_at_posting.google.com>

neo55592_at_hotmail.com (Neo) wrote in message news:<4b45d3ad.0407290735.67d55c35_at_posting.google.com>...
> >... I will finally get the $1000 he still owes me!
>
> Please help Neo owe Hugo $1000 by using RM Sol#1 or #2 to create the
> hierarchal reports for the following without NULLs or redundancy:

I really don't know why I'm bothering even trying, but...

> Case1: God is the parent of an unnamed person. God is also the parent
> of second person with three names (string 'john', integer 100, decimal
> 3.14).

Table: individuals

individual ID

---

individual1
individual2
individual3
...

Table: Skolemised individuals (Neo: look up "Skolemisation")

individual ID

---

individual2
...

Table: Skolemised individuals disequalities

Skolemised individual ID individual ID

---

individual2                 individual3

...

Table: parent of

parent ID offspring ID

---

individual1 individual2
individual1 individual3
...

Table: names of individuals (string)

individual ID string name

---

individual1      "God"
individual3      "john"

...

Table: names of individuals (integer)

individual ID integer name

---

individual3 100
...

Table: names of individuals (float)

individual ID integer name

---

individual3 3.14
...

So now we have

(1) an individual named "God" is the parent of some individual
(2) an individual named "God" is the parent of some other individual
named variously as "john", 100, and 3.14

> Case2: john isa person. john's color is brown. mary isa person. mary's
> color is brown. brown is a person.

Table: names of people

person person's name

---

individual1    "john"
individual2    "mary"
individual3    "brown"

...

So far we have

(3) john is (the name of) a person
(4) mary is (the name of) a person
(5) brown is (the name of) a person

Table: colour of person

individual ID individual's colour

---

individual1      colour1
individual2      colour1

...

Table: names of colours

colour ID colour name

---

colour1 "brown"
...

And now we have
(6) a person named john is brown
(7) a person named mary is brown

• Ralph

Received on Fri Jul 30 2004 - 03:17:38 CEST