Re: Table Names: Singular or Plural?

--CELKO-- wrote:

> Tables are sets; if you use a plural or collective name, you will
> treat them as sets. For example:
>
> Employee = Bad; do you really have at most one guy in the company?

To me this argument confuses sets with with they contain. You said in the first sentence above that tables are sets. Why would that lead you to believe that the set contains just one entity? The set is singular -- it is *a* set of employees, i.e., the Employee set. The Employee set (sing.) is a set of Employees (pl.).

> Employees = Better; it gets you thinking in sets and allows you to
> consider different types of employees (part-time, full-time, contract,
> etc.)
>
> Personnel = Best; it describes the role they play as a class in the
> data model.

If that actually is the role. Without knowledge of the problem domain, I have no reason to prefer "personnel" to "Employee/Employees."  

Larry Coon
University of California
larry_at_assist.org
and lmcoon_at_home.com Received on Fri Apr 05 2002 - 22:57:32 CEST