Re: Prescriptive design rules

On Aug 30, 9:52 pm, "Evan Keel" <evank..._at_sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> "Bob Badour" <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
>
> news:46d77f70$0$4022$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net...
>
>
>
> > Evan Keel wrote:
>
> > > "Evan Keel" <evank..._at_sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> > >news:EbnBi.1216$3Y1.852_at_newssvr17.news.prodigy.net...
>
> > >>This is a post from comp.databases.mysql:
>
> > >><<let's say I want to ask a survey question, with checkboxes:
>
> > >>What animals do you like?
> > >>[] giraffe
> > >>[] elephant
> > >>[] donkey
> > >>...
>
> > >>I'd possibly create a single column named "like" and store each
> > >>response as a comma delimited string:
> > >>giraffe,donkey
> > >>elephant,donkey
> > >>etc
>
> > >>But further, let's say I have a question with checkboxes and also
> > >>radio buttons:
>
> > >>Please select which animals you own, and tell us how much you like
> > >>each:
>
> > >>[] cat () low () medium () high
> > >>[] dog () low () medium () high
> > >>[] rat () low () medium () high
> > >>...
>
> > >>What's the best table design to store that? E.g., I could have a
> > >>column named "own" and another column named "rate". Or I could have a
> > >>column named "cat" which might contain:
> > >>yes,low
>
> > >>and another column named "dog" which might contain:
> > >>no
>
> > >>and another column named "rat" which might contain:
> > >>yes,high
>
> > >>etc. But neither of those seems quite right to me.
>
> > >>I'm obviously thinking of using one flat table for the whole survey,
> > >>is that a very wrong thing to do? I'm assuming that using a flat table
> > >>will naturally make it easier to export in spreadsheet format. I'm
> > >>also not concerned about the memory usage of a flat file.>>
>
> > >>If you could provide 10 prescriptive design rules to a front-end
>
> > > developer,
>
> > >>what would they be? Or just 5?
>
> > >>Evan
>
> > > You guys are so smug and clever. I was looking for real examples: When
> > > nulls are ok. When 2 tables have the same key.
>
> > Never. And when they do.
>
> I am working with many PHP programmers. These young folks view the DBMS
> as a file system. This is where the trouble starts.That is why I asked about
> 5-10 rules of thumb.

Until you and your "young folks" get a grip on something as simple and fundamental as First Normal Form (see Wikipedia), then you and your programmers should probably stick to storing your data in the filesystem as whatever. Received on Wed Sep 12 2007 - 04:04:05 CEST