[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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