How should databases be named

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How should databases be named

Josef Szeliga

SSC Journeyman

Points: 92
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March 8, 2006 at 7:11 pm

#365460

Ok we have lots of standards where i work and I have seen lots of other developers and DBA standards but what I want is the naming standard for the actuall Database ..not the tables or other objects.
Why ?
Ingress DBA's whish to take over SQL work in our organisation and want everyone to use Ingress standards ie a seven letter code.
eg
LAPDDDB
LA = Section Owner of Database
PD = The two letter designation of the application name eg DP Data Products
D = Development Database
DB = Database
Ingres on a Unix system allows for only 8 characters for a database name
Anything in best practices which discourages using a code instead of meaning full names for databases.

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Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323518 More actions · Answer 1

there's no good reason to limit yourself to 8 characters on the name of the database. just because that was the limit in older systems, doesn't mean you should handicap yourself with difficult to decipher acronyms.

a simple name like LADataProductsDev is much more readable and more descriptive....and adding DB to a database name is redundant i think.

LosAngelesDataProductsDev is a better example, but i couldn't guess what LA stood for;

meaningful names are more valuable than trying to follow an artificial standard i think.

what happens when you have a general purpose database, like ZipCodes, that would not follow your ownership rules from above?

Lowell

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Summer90 SSC-Dedicated Points: 32891 More actions · Answer 2

Here we try and name them this way...

SystemCode, Brand for which this applies if you have several companies, environment...

IE :

TMX_ABC_PROD

TMX would be the application or package

ABC is the company or division this product is for

PROD is Production

This is what we use here.

Rudyx - the Doctor SSC-Forever Points: 43695 More actions · Answer 3

Please do not cross post ...

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=5&messageid=264367

RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."