Re: Prescriptive design rules
From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:13:31 -0300
Message-ID: <46d7870d$0$4047$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net>
>>Evan Keel wrote:
>>
>>
>>>"Evan Keel" <evankeel_at_sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>>>news:EbnBi.1216$3Y1.852_at_newssvr17.news.prodigy.net...
>>>
>>>
>>>>This is a post from comp.databases.mysql:
>>>>
>>>><<let's say I want to ask a survey question, with checkboxes:
>>>>
>>>>What animals do you like?
>>>>[] giraffe
>>>>[] elephant
>>>>[] donkey
>>>>...
>>>>
>>>>I'd possibly create a single column named "like" and store each
>>>>response as a comma delimited string:
>>>>giraffe,donkey
>>>>elephant,donkey
>>>>etc
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>But further, let's say I have a question with checkboxes and also
>>>>radio buttons:
>>>>
>>>>Please select which animals you own, and tell us how much you like
>>>>each:
>>>>
>>>>[] cat () low () medium () high
>>>>[] dog () low () medium () high
>>>>[] rat () low () medium () high
>>>>...
>>>>
>>>>What's the best table design to store that? E.g., I could have a
>>>>column named "own" and another column named "rate". Or I could have a
>>>>column named "cat" which might contain:
>>>>yes,low
>>>>
>>>>and another column named "dog" which might contain:
>>>>no
>>>>
>>>>and another column named "rat" which might contain:
>>>>yes,high
>>>>
>>>>etc. But neither of those seems quite right to me.
>>>>
>>>>I'm obviously thinking of using one flat table for the whole survey,
>>>>is that a very wrong thing to do? I'm assuming that using a flat table
>>>>will naturally make it easier to export in spreadsheet format. I'm
>>>>also not concerned about the memory usage of a flat file.>>
>>>>
>>>>If you could provide 10 prescriptive design rules to a front-end
>>>
>>>developer,
>>>
>>>
>>>>what would they be? Or just 5?
>>>>
>>>>Evan
>>>>
>>>
>>>You guys are so smug and clever. I was looking for real examples: When
>>>nulls are ok. When 2 tables have the same key.
>>
>>Never. And when they do.
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:13:31 -0300
Message-ID: <46d7870d$0$4047$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net>
Evan Keel wrote:
> "Bob Badour" <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote in message > news:46d77f70$0$4022$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net... >
>>Evan Keel wrote:
>>
>>
>>>"Evan Keel" <evankeel_at_sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>>>news:EbnBi.1216$3Y1.852_at_newssvr17.news.prodigy.net...
>>>
>>>
>>>>This is a post from comp.databases.mysql:
>>>>
>>>><<let's say I want to ask a survey question, with checkboxes:
>>>>
>>>>What animals do you like?
>>>>[] giraffe
>>>>[] elephant
>>>>[] donkey
>>>>...
>>>>
>>>>I'd possibly create a single column named "like" and store each
>>>>response as a comma delimited string:
>>>>giraffe,donkey
>>>>elephant,donkey
>>>>etc
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>But further, let's say I have a question with checkboxes and also
>>>>radio buttons:
>>>>
>>>>Please select which animals you own, and tell us how much you like
>>>>each:
>>>>
>>>>[] cat () low () medium () high
>>>>[] dog () low () medium () high
>>>>[] rat () low () medium () high
>>>>...
>>>>
>>>>What's the best table design to store that? E.g., I could have a
>>>>column named "own" and another column named "rate". Or I could have a
>>>>column named "cat" which might contain:
>>>>yes,low
>>>>
>>>>and another column named "dog" which might contain:
>>>>no
>>>>
>>>>and another column named "rat" which might contain:
>>>>yes,high
>>>>
>>>>etc. But neither of those seems quite right to me.
>>>>
>>>>I'm obviously thinking of using one flat table for the whole survey,
>>>>is that a very wrong thing to do? I'm assuming that using a flat table
>>>>will naturally make it easier to export in spreadsheet format. I'm
>>>>also not concerned about the memory usage of a flat file.>>
>>>>
>>>>If you could provide 10 prescriptive design rules to a front-end
>>>
>>>developer,
>>>
>>>
>>>>what would they be? Or just 5?
>>>>
>>>>Evan
>>>>
>>>
>>>You guys are so smug and clever. I was looking for real examples: When
>>>nulls are ok. When 2 tables have the same key.
>>
>>Never. And when they do.
> > I am working with many PHP programmers. These young folks view the DBMS > as a file system. This is where the trouble starts.That is why I asked about > 5-10 rules of thumb.
Rules of thumb will not cure ignorance when what these young folks need is a solid understanding of the fundamentals. Received on Fri Aug 31 2007 - 05:13:31 CEST