Susan Harkins
ssharkins at bellsouth.net
Thu Jun 23 12:10:42 CDT 2005
Yes, a field for the book author name -- but a different table? I was considering that having it as a field in the book table makes it more difficult to relate actual members with each author name -- as they may have more than one. Most in this group aren't going to run into this -- but I'd rather allow for it now than have it bite me in the butt. Susan H. Susan, I'd second Charlotte's comment. I'd definitely would have a field for a pen name. <<But, there's only going to be one pen name for each book, so I think it's safe to do this. What do you think? >> No, because I might use the same pen name for many books. If at some point they want to know something like "when was this pen name created", then your in trouble. Should be: tblMembers MemberID MemberName DateCreated tblPenNames PenID PenName DateCreated Bio tblBooks BookID PenID Jim. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Susan Harkins Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 12:58 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Normalizing issue I've been considering this, this morning and I think what I've finally come up with is this: A member name -- that's their real name -- which will relate to their books. I "think" I will add a pen name field to the book table -- if they wrote the name under another name, it'll be there for searches, write-up's, whatever. But, there's only going to be one pen name for each book, so I think it's safe to do this. What do you think? Susan H. Since it's a writer's database, a separate *table* for pen names makes a lot of sense. Some writers use multiple pen names, so creating a pseudonym table is the safest way to handle that and relate it to the writer's actual name. You could always use the real name as the default when filling in a pen name. Charlotte Foust -----Original Message----- From: Susan Harkins [mailto:ssharkins at bellsouth.net] Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 8:43 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Normalizing issue If it isn't a middle or maiden name, what is it? This gets even more tricky with non-English names where "last" names can get really confusing. I generally provide a field for first, middle, and last name and make it the responsibility of the user to enter the appropriate value in the appropriate field. The rules for parsing this can become so draconian, that it hardly seems worth the work to do anything else. ========I'm in the middle of creating a database (pro bono) for a writer's organization. It's a simple deal and will require little work -- but this is already cropping up. These people will want their "writing" names with their publications -- I'm thinking about just adding one more field to store their "pen name" or whatever -- but then that becomes a nuisance if their name and professional name are the same -- gotta fill in both or allow for the blanks and go find the real name -- such a nuisance -- I think at this point the middle name is the best solution -- Susan H. -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com