how the heck do I model this?
Date: 24 Nov 2004 13:29:06 -0800
Message-ID: <7d34edda.0411241329.56785d16_at_posting.google.com>
Hope I can explain this... And I'll be talking more implementation... my theory language isn't real strong ...
I have the following case:
Based on a source_id plus n key/value pairs, where n is unknown (and theoretically unlimited), I need to look up 2 more values (let's call them site_datatype_id and interval). Obviously, the problem is that the 2 values to be looked up depend on multiple rows of lookup-data.
Take the following mapping table. It more accurately models the true relationship of the elements (which is a 1:m relationship between source/ site_datatype/interval and key/value). (I know it's not normalized: source, site_datatype, and interval are repeating in this design -- this is really probably a view on a couple of tables):
*source_id
*site_datatype_id
*interval
*key
key_value
It's easy to lookup a key_value based on PK of source, site_datatype,
interval,
and key (and it is a requirement to go in that direction as well as
the one described above). However, getting the site_datatype_id and
interval from the source and multiple key/value pairs is not so
straightforward... at least not that I can see. I'm sure that some
sort of procedural kludge could be implemented to give the desired
answer in this direction (e.g., get the site_datatype_id/interval pair
that occurs most frequently (i.e, in the most number of rows) where
source_id = <x> and ((key = <key1> and key_value = <keyvalue1>) OR ...
OR (key = <keyn> and key_value = <keyvaluen>))
Is this making sense? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle such a case? Essentially, for the odd lookup I need to do, the primary key is composed of a variable, and unknown until run-time, number of elements.
Thanks,
Carol
Received on Wed Nov 24 2004 - 22:29:06 CET