Re: vehicle to autoparts relationships

> I apparently screwed up by mentioning parts of different "parts" of the vehicle. I meant different "sections" of the vehicle, like the transmission, engine, exhaust system, etc.

Could one think of sections as parts also. If so, you might consolidate the hierarchy in just two core tables: T_Part and T_Par_Child

> which is easy to manage via an XRef table.

What is a XRef table?

> My concern is associating the part to the different vehicle sections. In the example below, the starter1 (or 2 or 3, etc) should relate to the engine. Thus, do I have to identify this in a table, or manage it strictly via the program?

I would opt to store the relationships in the db.

>The same applies to the transmission section, to which the "gear1" part is related. How do I say that the current user selection pertains to engines, transmissions, etc, and only show related parts, or even limit entry to appropriate parts???

Search for part (gear1) in T_Par_Child's child column. It should be in two rows, where the Parent part is manual_trans and auto_trans. After selecting one the trans (ie auto), find all rows with it in Par col, and it should return child parts (ie gear1, gear2). Received on Tue Nov 28 2006 - 06:32:25 CET