[AccessD] normalization question

There's no "what if", Susan. You simply don't have such a table. I know
several Bill Smiths and no less than five John Reids -- all living in
Toronto, all in the computer biz, and none related to any other. Weird
but true.

Of course a duplicate is a repeated value, but there must be some way to
distinguish them. In Canada we have SIN #s instead of SSNs, and
according to CDN law you cannot use these except for situations related
to Revenue Canada (our equivalent of the IRS). Admittedly, this
complicates the issues you are raising. But there is always some way to
individuate the John Reids. One lives at 124 Main Street, another at 111
Indian Road, etc., or maybe works for company XYZ (a bad choice, since
two John Reids could work there).

I have stumbled upon a similar situation regarding City names. Legend
has it that the reason The Simpsons chose Springfield as the city in
which the Simpsons live is because it is the most frequent City Name in
USA. Last time I looked there were about 30 of them. So when I present a
CityID combo|listbox, I always append the state, so the user knows which
Springfield she is choosing.

The same logic applies to the five occurrences of John Reid. There's no
other way to go. They need an ANPK and your selection method needs one
or more fields that distinguish them -- phone number might work, just as
an example. On the chance that John Reid lives with John Reid II, then
their names do not coincide. Should it happen that two unrelated John
Reids share the same address and phone number, well, there goes my
proposed solution: you would need to find another distinguishing column.

My $.02,
Arthur

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Susan Harkins
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 4:58 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] normalization question


You would think so Martin -- and you're most likely right. But, what
if????? Even with an AutoNumber value as the primary key, there's no way
to distinguish one from the other -- you have to depend on the
relationships to get it right. In fact, and this is what I'm really
getting to -- isn't a duplicate name really just a repeated value? I'm
bordering on ridiculous chaos here I know, but well... it's a Sunday and
I'm working, so might as well mess with everyone's heads, right? ;) 

Susan H. 

Why would you have a table with only names?

In my experience there is usually another qualifier? But I am sure
someone here will come up with an interesting approach to this one.


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