Re: Generalised approach to storing address details

Neo wrote:

> > ... it has been established that [EAV] breaks the Information Principle.
>
> >From prior posts, the definition of the Information Principle seems to
> be: The entire information content of a relational database is
> represented in one and only one way: namely, as attribute values within
> tuples within relations.
>
> This seems to imply that not matter how information is organized within
> a relational db, it is still represented as attribute values within
> tuples within relations. The Information Principle does not seem to say
> in any way that the way information is structured breaks that
> principle. In deed, even using EAV, the information content of that
> relational database is still represented in one and only one way:
> namely, as attribute values within tuples within relations.
>
> Could you re-establish why EAV breaks the Information Principle? Better
> yet, could you show a simple EAV example that breaks the principle.
> Best yet, could you show any relational database that breaks the
> principle!

I would imagine that the answer to this lies in the fact that once one employs EAV one is no longer using the RM as the logical model, but rather merely as storage device for a different model (a ternary one at that).

This is something that also befuddles the semantic web people, who confuse the fact that just because they can represent the relational model in a graph as implying that they are somehow equal. Received on Sun Dec 10 2006 - 04:44:40 CET