Re: Modelling objects with variable number of properties in an RDBMS

From: Roy Hann <specially_at_processed.almost.meat>
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2005 23:30:56 -0000
Message-ID: <79Sdne2dw4Hv0fTeRVnysQ@pipex.net>

"VC" <boston103_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:xpednZGpW5rOofTeRVn-pQ_at_comcast.com...
> > I hope this is not a side-track here, but could you clarify this a bit?
> > It sounds like you are saying you have a drug entity, some stable
> > information about that drug, and then the results of multiple
> > tests/experiments done against that drug (e.g. test1, test2, test3,
> > test4,..., test750).
> >
> > Should these tests really be considered attributes? Wouldn't the act
> > of presenting them as a two-tuple relation <test#, test result> simple
> > be an wise step of normalization - not an example of an EAV
> > decomposition? Am I totally missing the boat on this?
>
> It's a single test with ~6000 measurements.

That much I get, but is it really an EAV design? Are the values of these 6,000 measurements from one domain or many?

Roy Received on Wed Nov 02 2005 - 17:30:56 CST