[thelist] Database design question
fstorr
fffrancis at fstorr.demon.co.uk
Tue Jul 22 15:06:24 CDT 2003
> If the acronym can vary by department or context, you may
> need to decide if you need the full version in the table with
> the definitions.
+++++
Yep, I couldn't make my mind up where that should so. I was vearing
towards your suggestion anyway, so I'll go with that.
+++++
> > 2: A foreign key referencing table 1, a definition of the term, any
> > saliant links, the department that uses the term
> (referencing table 3)
>
> In this case, what are saliant links? The way you worded
> "any saliant links" leads me to believe you may even want a 4th table.
+++++
For example, our Customer Service department produces a weekly
newsletter called CSID, so I'd link to that. Likewise, I'd link to
w3.org for HTML or our medical department for one of their bizarre
terms!
+++++
> > The reason I've split the main term from it's definition is
> that some
> > acronyms can obviously stand for many things (ICS can, in my case,
> > stand for Institute Of Customer Service, or Internal Customer
> > Service).
> Does the definition depend on departmental context?
+++++
It's likely that more than one department could "own" a term. We use a
lot of medical abbrievations that are used both our Medical department
as well as Customer Service. Likewise, the aforementioned ICS: the
Institute Of Customer Service is an external body, whereas Internal
Customer Service is a department within Customer Service
+++++
> I don't think that your colleague is correct. If you were to
> follow their advice, your PK in table one would become a
> compound key of term and business department (FK).
+++++
That's exactly what I thought. Huzzah, I'm right!
+++++
Regards
F
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