[thelist] Newbie - DB Design Help

Todd Richards todd at promisingsites.com
Wed Jul 26 08:36:38 CDT 2006


Rob -

Thanks for your input, and the option outlined below.  I appreciate your
feedback!

Todd


-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Smith [mailto:rob.smith at lexjet.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 7:33 AM
To: todd at promisingsites.com; thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: RE: [thelist] Newbie - DB Design Help

<snip>
In this site, a list of services each company provides will be labled by
level of expertise (let's call it rookie, modertate, expert).  
</snip>

One of the cool things about building databases is the fact that you can
design it through using plain English. Obviously you have a one-to-many and
possibly a many-to-many relationship. Meaning, Company A may have a generic
service that Company B, might use. It wouldn't makes sense to create an
entirely new Service for company B, but share the two, whereas Company A
ONLY does a particular service that makes them unique to the industry.

Having bridging tables is good for a great deal amount of information.
For proper relational database management you're on the right track.
You could also get away with the following without using a bridging table. 

Table "company" (for all of the company information; obviously not all of
it)
    - company_ID
    - company_Name
    - ...
 
Table "services" (for the list of the various services)
    - services_ID
    - company_ID  (as a FK)
    - services_Name
    - services_Description
 
Table "level" (for the 3-4 levels of expertise)
    - service_level_ID
    - services_ID (as a FK)
    - service_level_Name
    - service_level_Value (1, 2, 3, etc)
 

Rob Smith
LexJet
rob.smith at lexjet.com
http://www.lexjet.com
(800)453-9538
(941)330-1210 Int'l
(941)330-1220 Fax
1680 Fruitville Road, 3rd Floor
Sarasota, FL 34236






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