Thread: Inheritance & multiple-value fields

Inheritance & multiple-value fields

From
"Vernon Smith"
Date:
We usually use another table for a multi-valued field. Is possible having a single multi-valued field table for all
tablesin the same heredity, other than having a multi-valued table for every single tables in the heredity? 

Thanks for your information.

Vernon


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Re: Inheritance & multiple-value fields

From
Ron Johnson
Date:
On Sat, 2003-08-02 at 15:26, Vernon Smith wrote:
> We usually use another table for a multi-valued field. Is possible
> having a single multi-valued field table for all tables in the
> same heredity, other than having a multi-valued table for every
> single tables in the heredity?

Sure: Pick, now known as D3.
http://www.rainingdata.com/products/dbms/d3/index.html

However, that breaks the cardinal rule of relational DB design:
http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/26861_1428511_4

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+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ron Johnson, Jr.        Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net             |
| Jefferson, LA  USA                                              |
|                                                                 |
| "I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian  |
|  because I hate vegetables!"                                    |
|    unknown                                                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+



Re: Inheritance & multiple-value fields

From
"Vernon Smith"
Date:
Thanks for your input, Ron.

My question, however, is addressed to PG only since this is PG mailing list. I have no interest to buy another DB
productat this moment. 

My question can be stated in the other way: why the data in the sub-table is visible, but not referable?

Here is my example:

Table A ( id int, ... )
Table B ( ... ) inherits (A)

Table A1 ( id int REFERENCES A ON DELETE CASCADE, ...)

A selecting operation can retrieve data in the table B, but an inserting operation can't refer a key in the table B.



--

--------- Original Message ---------

DATE: 02 Aug 2003 17:09:12 -050
From: Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net>
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Cc:

>On Sat, 2003-08-02 at 15:26, Vernon Smith wrote:
>> We usually use another table for a multi-valued field. Is possible
>> having a single multi-valued field table for all tables in the
>> same heredity, other than having a multi-valued table for every
>> single tables in the heredity?
>
>Sure: Pick, now known as D3.
>http://www.rainingdata.com/products/dbms/d3/index.html
>
>However, that breaks the cardinal rule of relational DB design:
>http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/26861_1428511_4
>
>--
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Ron Johnson, Jr.        Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net             |
>| Jefferson, LA  USA                                              |
>|                                                                 |
>| "I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian  |
>|  because I hate vegetables!"                                    |
>|    unknown                                                      |
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
>
>
>
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Re: Inheritance & multiple-value fields

From
Ron Johnson
Date:
On Sat, 2003-08-02 at 18:55, Vernon Smith wrote:
> Thanks for your input, Ron.
>
> My question, however, is addressed to PG only since this is PG
> mailing list. I have no interest to buy another DB product at
> this moment.

You asked about "multi-valued field table".  That looks like a
construct that is against the "rules" of relational database
design.  So, since PG doesn't support that feature, I told you about
a product that does do multi-valued fields.  What's the problem?
I was being helpful.

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ron Johnson, Jr.        Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net             |
| Jefferson, LA  USA                                              |
|                                                                 |
| "I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian  |
|  because I hate vegetables!"                                    |
|    unknown                                                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+



Re: Inheritance & multiple-value fields

From
"Vernon Smith"
Date:
--

--------- Original Message ---------

DATE: 03 Aug 2003 02:27:08 -050
From: Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net>
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Cc:

>On Sat, 2003-08-02 at 18:55, Vernon Smith wrote:
>> Thanks for your input, Ron.
>>
>> My question, however, is addressed to PG only since this is PG
>> mailing list. I have no interest to buy another DB product at
>> this moment.
>
>You asked about "multi-valued field table".  That looks like a
>construct that is against the "rules" of relational database
>design.  So, since PG doesn't support that feature, I told you about

Relation DB has its way to handle multi-valued field.

>a product that does do multi-valued fields.  What's the problem?

What is the problem of my previous email?

>I was being helpful.

Did I say "thank you"? Yes, I did.

>
>--
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Ron Johnson, Jr.        Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net             |
>| Jefferson, LA  USA                                              |
>|                                                                 |
>| "I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian  |
>|  because I hate vegetables!"                                    |
>|    unknown                                                      |
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
>
>
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Re: Inheritance & multiple-value fields

From
"scott.marlowe"
Date:
On Sat, 2 Aug 2003, Vernon Smith wrote:

>
> We usually use another table for a multi-valued field. Is possible
> having a single multi-valued field table for all tables in the same
> heredity, other than having a multi-valued table for every single
> tables in the heredity?

The SQL 3 standard has an enumerated type listed in it, but I don't think
it's likely to show up in Postgresql any time soon.  you can approximate
these using a check in() constraint.

Or are you looking at more than one value in the same field?  In that
case, arrays are a way to do that.

both enumerated types and arrays break the strict relational model, but
sometimes they're the simpler, cleaner soltution.