Re: Database design
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:00:56 -0000
Message-ID: <zMSdnawYGd2CdWTeRVny3w_at_pipex.net>
"Alexandr Savinov" <spam_at_conceptoriented.com> wrote in message
news:43f9d97f$1_at_news.fhg.de...
> Roy Hann schrieb:
> > "Mark Johnson" <102334.12_at_compuserve.com> wrote in message
> > news:acrfv1l86m3aqgfc2a3gj1btrbm1ja8r6p_at_4ax.com...
> >> "friend.05" <hirenshah.05_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I want to desgin a database for Tag Structure. Database design that
can
> >>> store heirarchy of tags developed my users. Present most popular
tags.
> >> You are asking if a relational database, with its flat
> >> tables/relations and link keys can be used to store nested markup -
> >> such as XHTML.
> >
> > I struggle to see how something that is n-dimensional could be called
> > "flat". Roy
>
> There is two separate issues:
> - multidimensionality, and
> - hierarchy
> "Flat" in this context means (as far as I understand) the absence of
> hierarchy, i.e., all the elements are at the same level.
> Naturally this
> has nothing to do with n-dimensionality, i.e., n-dimensional model can
> well be flat (non-hierarchical) and vice versa a hierarchical model
> might well be one-dimensional. An example is any relational model which
> is intrinsically non-hierarchical (that is, flat).
No doubt. I guess.
> Here it is also
> assumed that the model itself is unaware if there is a hierarchy in the
> data it models or not because it does not care - it is based on other
> principles. However, the designer may well use it to model a
> hierarchical data (as well as many other types of data organization). In
> this case he/she must be responsible for the hierarchy maintenance
> (integrity etc.) For example, we might model a tree but the model does
> not know that it is a tree and hence cannot help us in its use.
I agree. But so what? I could have an attribute of type "tree".
Roy Received on Mon Feb 20 2006 - 17:00:56 CET