Re: Help! I can't support normalization

Heinz Huber <hhuber_at_racon-linz.at> wrote in message news:<Xns92BC5BBF3247hhuberraconlinzat_at_195.3.96.116>...
> phantomtoe_at_yahoo.com (Rowan) wrote in
> news:4bbf8d70.0211010748.727d38ef_at_posting.google.com:
>
> > Greetings all,
> >
> > I have read with great interest the discussions regarding
> > normalization. I understand it. I can do it. Unfortunately, I
> > cannot convince the people I work with how important it is. I am a
> > newbie and don't know how to support my argument that our database
> > must be normalized. When I began at this company three months ago
> > soon after graduation I found that the sql server 2000 database was
> > completely corrupt. Primary keys were not declared, (let alone
> > foreign keys), fields appeared multiple times throughout tables with
> > different names, etc. Pretty much every bad thing you could think of
> > existed in this database. Reports are very difficult to create. I
> > have since redesigned and built a new database and am now in the
> > process of reworking the vb application to fit the new database,
> > including edi remapping. My problem is that being a newbie, I
> > sometimes need to ask for vb help from the other programmer. An
> > example is yesterday I was struggling with an aspect of concatenating
> > an employee Last Name and a First Name. I displayed a list of
> > concatenated names in a datacombo but wanted to store the Employeeid
> > in a customer table. When I asked the programmer for help, he said
> > just concatenate the names in the field in the employee table and call
> > it "name". I said no. He asked why. I didn't have an answer. Could
> > anyone give me an answer? I would like a well supported argument to
> > put this silliness to rest. I appreciate anyone's thoughts and ideas.
> > Please enlighten me!
>
> Apart from what others have said considering using the first and last name
> separately, you can also take a look at marriages or other name changes.
> Most time, only the last name changes. Do you really want to risk
> accidently changing the first name, too?

OK. People unanimously voted for the separation of the Last Name and a First Name.

How about mantissa and logarithm of a decimal number? For example, why

1.33e-12

couldn't be considered as a concatenation of the "first name" 1.33 and the "last name" -12. Wouldn't it be better store a number in 2 columns? Received on Wed Nov 06 2002 - 00:22:01 CET