[AccessD] normalization question

Hi Susan

Fractoid? Your mind is truly weird ...

============You're just figuring that out? :) 

Back to the topic:

Here we have had a personal id system since 1968 which main purpose is to
uniquely identify each citizen for the authorities and others who need it
like insurance companies and banks - they have access to a central database
for verification.
Actually it is quite clever; you get the number the day you are born and it
contains your birth date plus four digits (where odd/even indicates your
sex) so you can easily remember it. Further, it is Modulus 11 verified, so
typing errors are avoided. Reported errors through the years have been
extremely few and it has served its purpose well. 

===========I guess in the end, what I've decided (for myself) is that even
though a name may be repeated, as a representation of a unique "person" it
is not redundant, therefore,  it is OK to keep names in another table with
seemingly less related facts, even if they're repeated. It is OK not to
normalize names the same way you would city, state, and so on. There aren't
two LA, Californias, but there are two (or many more) Mary Smith's. While
you could normalize them the same way,I think it's unnecessary, unless of
course the application's purpose somehow requires it. 

Of course that still doesn't solve the problem of knowing whether Mary Smith
has two addresses or whether there are two Mary Smith's... But depending on
the application, it may not even matter. If it does, you have to allow for
it -- as you mention using some clever scheme.  

Susan H.