August 7, 2008 at 10:17 am
We have a transaction table thats all fine and hunky dorry apart from two fields right at the end.. verification_number_1 and verfication_number2.
On spotting this I'm kinda concerned as apparently a transaction can contain any combination of data e.g neither field populated, either one or the other populated , or indeed both populated.
Correct me if Im wrong but doesn't this go against first normal form ? is it inheriantely evil or ,,, ?
If it is bad what would be a preferred alternative ?
many thanks
~si
August 7, 2008 at 11:10 am
Well, theorically speaking it's a violation of normal form, but practically speaking I don't see anything nasty. The main question you have to ask yourself is: "will these two verification numbers remain forever two, or is somebody coming up tomorrow with a third one?".
Maybe Boyce and Codd will not agree, but nobody's going to die if you keep it this way.
I used to be a "purist" years ago, but I had to work with too many horribly-designed databases to get concerned by two verification numbers.
Regards Gianluca
-- Gianluca Sartori
August 8, 2008 at 3:00 am
Gianluca Sartori (8/7/2008)
Well, theorically speaking it's a violation of normal form, but practically speaking I don't see anything nasty. The main question you have to ask yourself is: "will these two verification numbers remain forever two, or is somebody coming up tomorrow with a third one?".Maybe Boyce and Codd will not agree, but nobody's going to die if you keep it this way.
I used to be a "purist" years ago, but I had to work with too many horribly-designed databases to get concerned by two verification numbers.
Regards Gianluca
thank you gianluca .. much appreciated !
hmmm Im assured there will never be more than two .. but I've heard that before !
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