Re: Database design

In an attempt to throw the authorities off his trail, "Marshall Spight" <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com> transmitted:
> Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>>
>> It is n-dimensional, one dimension per attribute.
>
> This is of course exactly correct.

And it is correct in a practical sense as well as in "exactness."

The fact that the relational algebra "SELECT" permits querying on *any* of the dimensions makes it a practical matter, as does the "genericity" of the SQL 'WHERE' clause.

If looking for data, in a table with 10 attributes, all 10 attributes are relevant dimensions (in the mathematical sense) that I can use to select data.

SQL may have some weaknesses and irregularies; this is NOT one of them...

To those whose "database world view" is restricted to them being a set of arrays that you have to navigate through, apparently it *is* impossible to perceive this.

MV may allow you to nest some arrays inside one another, but if you lose the many dimensions, well, oops, that was a dead loss...

>> The three dimensions of Euclidean space are not in any particular
>> order either.
>
> Nicely put.

Everyone knows the order is (x, y, z) ;-). (But which direction is which ;-) ?)

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