[AccessD] Normalizing issue

Susan Harkins ssharkins at bellsouth.net
Thu Jun 23 13:28:24 CDT 2005


This is really getting much more complicated than I had planned. Now I have
to figure out how to deal with books versus articles. :) I thought about one
table that id's each publication as a book, article, etc. but I have one
problem. 

Books are usually in or out of print and that just doesn't apply for
articles. If I use a Yes/No for InPrint, then I've got records when an
inappropriate value -- No for magazines isn't really correct. I could use a
tri-state Yes/No I guess, and put Null to work, but ug... 

I can have a separate table that stores only book InPrint field. Or, I can
just use two different tables, one for books, for mags. 

Susan H.  

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Dettman
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 1:23 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Normalizing issue

<<OK -- so you're relating the pen name table to the member name and then
relating the book table to the pen name table?>>

  Yes.

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 1:13 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Normalizing issue


OK -- so you're relating the pen name table to the member name and then
relating the book table to the pen name table?

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Dettman
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 1:10 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Normalizing issue

Slight correction:

tblMembers
MemberID
MemberName
DateCreated

tblPenNames
PenID
MemberID
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.

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