Re: Nested Relations / RVAs / NFNF
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:34:53 -0700
Message-ID: <IIegd.45$of1.104_at_news.oracle.com>
"Tony Douglas" <tonyisyourpal_at_netscape.net> wrote in message
news:bcb8c360.0410281331.305f289e_at_posting.google.com...
> For
> example, how would you represent "two kilograms" in a program ? 2
> doesn't cut it, because that's an integer. 2.0 is a real number (or a
> float, or a double, or...) You can't typically readily say 2kg, so
> you're left with awful stropping, like kg(2) or somesuch.
Why not to include 3 more columns into the dictionary table ALL_COLUMNS:
power_kg RATIONAL, power_m RATIONAL, power_s RATIONAL
?
In your example
table Person (
...
weight NUMBER
...
)
This is standartization and [other things being equal] standartization is always good.
I remind you that according to naive type idea, you are not allowed to
divide columns that have different types (that is, in my language, different
<power_kg, power_m, power_s> signature) or, at least, have to wrap them into
silly methods like this
float divide(float distance_in_meters, float speed_in_meters_per_seconds)
or this
Seconds divide(Meters distance, MetersPerSeconds velocity)