[AccessD] Normalization discussion

A foreign key is a key that points to the PK in another table.  You're
mixing keys with parent child relationships, which are defined through
keys.  In a data warehouse, you put a bunch of keys in the central table,
but in a regular database you put the parent PK into the child tables so
they know their mommy,  The idea is to put the keys where they are needed.

Charlotte


On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 6:07 AM, Susan Harkins <ssharkins at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'll spend the morning rereading the book Martin and I wrote, brushing up
> on the normalization part. I've forgotten a lot of the basics. I'm writing
> an animal tracing database in Access and I'm trying to remember if it
> matters where the fk goes. Now, I remember its purpose and all that, but it
> would be so much simpler if I could just drop them all into the main table
> instead of adding a fk to all the child tables to the main table -- I think
> anyway.
>
> So, I've got a main table of animals and all of the remaining tables are
> child tables of a sort and a few lookup tables. Is it reasonable to just
> add a fk to all those child tables in my parent table?
>
> I just don't remember. I haven't built a database in... seriously... 10
> years? It's been long enough that I'm really struggling.
>
> Susan H.
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