Re: Modeling Address using Relational Theory

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> On 4 Sep 2005 19:26:37 -0700, "dawn" <dawnwolthuis_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> >I might agree if it were the case that you could collect these data
> >from a user in any order on an input form. I can put State/Province
> >before City and people might have to change their habits, but they will
> >be able to adjust much more handily than if I put addr2 before addr1 on
> >a form. Gene was right when he said that you could code this as a
> >single value and use markup of some sort to identify the second value
> >from the first. Putting them in the opposite order would make a whole
> >lot less sense than putting other values in an order that is not
> >common. It would be more like having the user write a Word document
> >with the last line on top.
>
> Chinese addresses are that way though. They go from least to
> most specific.
>
> Is this address issue really any different than Chinese (and some
> other) names which have the family name first?

I think it is slightly different.

While names are at least as complex as addresses, I have found them to be slightly better behaved in that you can identify the attributes and constraints reasonably cleanly and then handle the differences as representation issues.

Story/Aside: I recall my father's colleague, Dwarkish, not getting a paycheck his first month teaching in the early 70's in the US because he had only one name and you needed a first & last name to get paid. His checks ended up being addressed to "Dwarkish Dwarkish" although they discussed making it Dwar Kish in order to "get around" the system.

There might be small issues with the title & suffix that are often handled by putting an entry of "Rev. Dr." as a single valid title (I wouldn't make that one a list even if conceptually it is).

After reading more about addresses, it appears that you could attempt to have two components of a street address and a more specific designator, but then these do not relate to two lines, as they can be put on a single line when there is enough room. Additionally, if the street address runs long, then it can "wrap" to the line below it. So, addrLine1, addrLine2 still offends my sensitivities, but I can come up with a reasonable model that avoids that and also avoids having a multivalued attribute, so I can achieve my goal.

> When I wrote a Web app
> in a course, I had provision in the customer data for whether the
> family name was before or after the given names.

I looked over one of the vast number of standards for xml versions of name & address a while back and I think there was some provision for that, but don't recall the approach used. A flag might be the best choice. Thanks. --dawn

> [snip]
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Gene Wirchenko
Received on Wed Sep 07 2005 - 20:00:37 CEST