Hi Sergiy,

Thanks for the reply.  Let me explain my situation a little bit more. 

I need to audit every change to every table. No windows users have access to the database,...

In reality I have several tables like table 2 & 3. Some have two fields others have more.  In essence, I have many tables that reference table 1.  Perhaps in...

Thanks for the responses guys.  It sounds as though I definitely cannot do this via relationships and constraints. 

If I might, I'd like to pose another question while I have...

Hi Allen,

Thanks for the response.  I agree,  I could do this using some type of store proc/trigger or through the business logic. 

But you did address what I am trying...

Excellent.  Thanks for the clarification.

If I make that change, I would then need to make sure that I always entered the data in that form.

So I would never have an entry:

E1    E2    x    y   ...

Great!  Thanks for the help.

Hi David,

I understand what you're saying.  If I had table:

E1    E2       x      y      z

---    ---      --     --     --

1 ...

Thanks Chris.  I appreciate the feedback.  It does make more sense (in terms of retrieval) to store it in the manner described.  I'm glad to hear it qualifies as a normalized...

Thanks Chris.  I appreciate the feedback.  It does make more sense (in terms of retrieval) to store it in the manner described.  I'm glad to hear it qualifies as a normalized...

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. Let me try and put this into context.  In my application, I want to look up an entity.  That entity has certain attributes

which are...

Hi all,

Thank you for the responses.  I am leaning in the single database direction for the moment. 

I would like to ask what the ramifications would be if I did...

Thank you both for the replies. I will try to address the questions one by one.

Wayne:

The application is a product that will be sold.  It will be packaged with MSDE. 

As...