[thelist] CF smoke and mirrors

[rudy]

> I always understood that there was no "order" to columns in the
> database, and that to do anything based off the way they are
> ordered in your visual tool (Access, SQL Enterprise Manager, etc)
> was flawed. Any of you database gurus know if this is true, or
> maybe just old school thinking?

grievously flawed

way to go, chris


<tip>
always give the same column used in two tables the same name

example: foreign key referencing a primary key

  create table foo (fooid int, foodata varchar(21)
       , primary key (fooid) );

poor foreign key naming scheme --

  create table bar (barid int, bardata varchar(21)
       , barfooid int references foo
       , primary key (barid) );

better --

  create table bar (barid int, bardata varchar(21)
       , fooid int references foo
       , primary key (barid) );

yes, whenever you need to use the common column name in a "table list"
join, you need to qualify it using the table name, i.e. foo.fooid or
bar.fooid --

   select foodata, bardata
     from foo, bar
    where foo.fooid = bar.fooid

however, it is now easier to write the join using standard syntax

   select foodata, bardata
     from foo join bar using fooid

or even

   select foodata, bardata
     from foo natural join bar

</tip>


rudy