Re: Does Codd's view of a relational database differ from that ofDate& Darwin? [M.Gittens]

"paul c" <toledobythesea_at_oohay.ac> wrote in message news:IDipe.1593625$6l.719448_at_pd7tw2no...
> Paul wrote:
>> Mikito Harakiri wrote:
>>
>>>Hear, hear! It totally escapes me how could somebody invent putting
>>>nonumeric value ("not salaried") into numeric column. For all reporting
>>>purposes unknown salary is salary equal to 0.
>>
>>
>> I disagree; suppose 90% of salaries are unknown. Someone does a quick
>> query to get the total estimated salary bill, not realising this. They
>> are going to get a shock when the real thing comes through!
>> ...
>
>
> they'll get a bigger shock when the business goes under. if 90% of
> salaries are unknown, serves them right. they have bigger problems than
> the database.

This defines the fractal basin boundary between use of theory and use of practice in regard to database systems theory.

An automated data integrity exception identification system serves many purposes for the organisation (who owns the data, and for whom the data has the "ultimate" meaning). Especially seeing salary is but one element in a system which may have thousands of elements.

-- 
Pete Brown
IT Managers & Engineers
Falls Creek
Australia
www.mountainman.com.au