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What is this model technique called

From: Jarson <jarson_at_nospam.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 22:12:52 -0400
Message-ID: <zAcDa.4514$VS5.417839_at_news20.bellglobal.com> 





What do you call the data modeling technique where you store attribute NAME
& VALUE pairs, instead of just typical descriptive column names.



An  example of where I am using this is to capture contract terms within a
database, knowing that terms are very dynamic will vary from contract
to contract.



ATTRIBUTE_TYPES



    
  
  •   ATTRIBUTE_NAME (PK)

  
  •   DATA_TYPE

  
  •   ENTITY_TYPE

  
  •   UNIT_OF_MEASURE

  
  •   DESCRIPTION





CONTRACT_TERMS



    
  
  •   CONTRACT_ID (PK) (FK to another Contract table)
  
  •   ATTRIBUTE_NAME (PK) (FK to ATTRIBUTE_TYPES)
  
  •   VALUE





The first table is a configuration table and would list all possible
contract terms that are available, possibly feeding a list-box in a GUI.
The second table is the actual table showing those terms, and their values,
associated with each specific contract.



I also added ENTITY_TYPE to the first table, indicating that this table
could be used as a source for several other tables such as CONTACTS or
SPECIFICATIONS tables.  Examples may be 'CONTRACT_ID', or 'CONTACT_ID', or
'SPEC_ID'.  The advantage is that any GUI front-end for administrative
maintenance only has to deal with one table.



What is this technique called?



 Jarson
Received on Wed Jun 04 2003 - 04:12:52 CEST












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