Re: Order of fields in a table.

"ben brugman" <ben_at_niethier.nl> wrote in message news:3f056cbb$0$13801$4d4ebb8e_at_read.news.nl.uu.net...

> in a real live database. I am aware that applications
> should not use any order, but there are also humans
> seeing the order of the fields in the database.

Tell that to JDBC/Java users. Unless they use the MetaData methods for cursors (slow) they must have new columns added, otherwise it messes up their code.

It makes for easier reading if at least the keys (PK and FK) are first in the table.
Other than this, I don't do any additional ordering. I think Designer lets you sort by optional/mandatory and alphabetical. Don't do a distinction here, but some people might like it that way? Back in V5/V6 days I used to put optional columns last, but haven't noticed any advantage in later versions.

> What is common in your world, adding or inserting ?

Adding. Not aware of any way of easily inserting into existing table... ALTER TABLE ADD adds.

--
Cheers
Nuno Souto
wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam