Re: Encoding materialized path in an atomic value.

"Wolfgang Riedel" <wolfgang.riedel_at_retarus.de> wrote in message news:4337CA9F.F7DF341D_at_retarus.de...
> David Cressey wrote:
> >
> > "Hugo Kornelis" <hugo_at_pe_NO_rFact.in_SPAM_fo> wrote in message
> > news:4eq8j1pvan8qnmo7sh8235eamtraqmae41_at_4ax.com...
> > > On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 20:24:42 GMT, David Cressey wrote:
> >
> > > Maybe I'm missing something here? What would the code be for your
> > > father's father's father's mother's father's mother? If I understand
the
> > > method correctly, the binary LSB-first notation would be 111010. And
> > > that would also be 23 in decimal.
> > >
> > > >23 is, I think we will all agree "atomic" or "simple" enough so
that it
> > > >can be stored in a single value.
> > >
> > > Yeah. But in this case, it lacks unambiguity.
> > >
> > > Best, Hugo
> > > --
> >
> > Hugo,
> >
> <snip>
> If you do that, the ambiguity you mention disappears.
> >
> > Your parents become 2 and 3
> > Your grandparents become 4 through 7,
> > Your great grandparents become 8 through 15
> > and so on.
> <snip>
> not so, you can be the offspring of the same person in more than one way.
> The same person might even be present in different generations.
>
> Otherwise everybody would have had some 2 ** 240000 grandgrand....parents
a time
> ago.

Yes, of course. What we are dealing with here is not a hierarchy of persons but a hierachy of ancestor slots. One person could occupy more than one slot. Genealogists deal with this situation all the time. The same thing happens in an org chart when one person is holding down two jobs. Received on Tue Sep 27 2005 - 14:32:17 CEST