Re: The stupidest design I ever saw

Neo wrote:
> > The folks who wrote this apparently have no idea that graph is defined by the set of nodes and edges between them. They wrap their naive understanding what the graph is into XML cludgy syntax and claim it to be a superior solution.
> .
> What is the better solution? Could you show it (possibly using the
> vehicle classes above)?

To what kind of problem? Do you really insist on vehicle classification in the first place? You may want spend some time on Bruce Jacobs site where he advocates that classification system for data management problems is a poor solution in general.

Note, that I'm not saying that graph related problems don't exist. I merely challenge their applicability in this case.

Now, storing a graph in the database is no brainer.

table Nodes (

    id number,
    ... -- content
)

table Edges (

    tail number,
    head number,
   ... -- more content, if edges are labeled )

I have two chapters about trees and graphs in my book. http://www.rampant-books.com/book_2006_1_sql_coding_styles.htm Received on Wed Apr 05 2006 - 21:06:00 CDT