Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!novia!newspump.sol.net!news-out.readnews.com!transit3.readnews.com!news-out.news.tds.net!newsreading01.news.tds.net!86597e80!not-for-mail From: "Arved Sandstrom" Subject: Re: Java Toplink Essentia Message-ID: <53gzk.2699$1x6.23@edtnps82> X-Comment-To: comp.lang.java.databases Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.databases In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=IBM437 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Gateway: time.synchro.net [Synchronet 3.15a-Win32 NewsLink 1.92] Lines: 32 Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:22:37 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 96.60.20.240 X-Complaints-To: news@tds.net X-Trace: newsreading01.news.tds.net 1303917757 96.60.20.240 (Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:22:37 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:22:37 CDT Organization: TDS.net Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.databases:250 To: comp.lang.java.databases "Lew" wrote in message news:cqWdnWKfq97dBlXVnZ2dnUVZ_rCdnZ2d@comcast.com... [ SNIP ] > I don't know of a term analogous to "normal form" (as in "third normal > form") for excessive splitting of tables into many tables; all the normal > forms have to do with insufficient splitting. Advances in the database > world occur in how to structure data - relations, normal forms, star > schemae, foreign keys, these are the building blocks of DBMSes as classes > and objects are of O-O programming. [ SNIP ] I've seen this particular operation - splitting one table into many tables based on the value of an attribute, and dropping that column - described as "attribute splitting". As I understand it this violates Domain Key Normal Form (DKNF), because not all of the logical decisions your program would want to make are defined by the data. I'm leery of any approach where domain information is captured only in the names of files or database tables. Even when using flat files I'd still want to have a header line with information like this. If the boss absolutely wanted this kind of splitting I'd at least argue for keeping a year column in each table, even if it's all the same value for each table. AHS --- * Synchronet * The Whitehouse BBS --- whitehouse.hulds.com --- check it out free usenet! --- Synchronet 3.15a-Win32 NewsLink 1.92 Time Warp of the Future BBS - telnet://time.synchro.net:24