OO purists opions sought

Hi All,

This is not strictly an oracle issue, but will be implemented in oracle so it's not too far off topic here hopefully.

I'm looking at using the OO features in 8.1.6 for a new project I've been given. However, I have an "unclean" feeling about my design thus far (OO newbie here).

The simplified (!) scenario:

The database is to track orders which have been held back for whatever reason (bad credit etc).

Now there is a held_orders table:

account_id
order_id
amount
date
etc

But I just hate a "held order" being an object - whether an order is held or not is an attribute of an order object surely. But I only have part of the total order information available in the feeds to this system. (Otherwise I could have an order object all with the "held" attribute set=Y, which is a waste of a column in this system. Also, the order object couldn't be reused elsewhere since its only a part order representation). Agh, round and round I go.
***

Anyone got any calming words on why a held order is a valid object?
***

Everything I've reading uses obvious object solutions based on person/emp/dept etc and that fits fine. This doesn't feel right. Maybe that's the guideline of when to stay relational.

Steve
P.S
Also I don't like the way a "normal" insert values statement can be used on an object table, it feels like the insert (type) should be enforced, although I guess suitable table constraints make that less offensive. Received on Wed Apr 26 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT