Gary Kjos
garykjos at gmail.com
Tue Dec 23 19:36:08 CST 2014
In the data warehouse world.... we set up a key value of -1 and store a row in the pointed too table with that -1 value with a description of "Unknown" or maybe "None" Yoiu could do a -2 with unknown and -1 with none. Doesn't HAVE to be -1 or -2 but that let's you know right off the bat what is going on there. GK On Tue, Dec 23, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Tina Norris Fields <tinanfields at torchlake.com> wrote: > Yes, that's what I've done. What's troubling me is that not every donation > will have both FKs filled - as when the donor is just an individual, not > associated with an organization on record. something feels wrong (not > normalized) about that setup, but I don't see how to normalize it. > > Would you use the same principle for other similar setups, such as the > different associations for phones? For instance, the household has a land > line, and the several members of the household carry cell phones. The table > of phone numbers will have an identifier for the type of phone and an FK for > either the household or the individual. > > Thanks for your ideas. > > TNF > > Tina Norris Fields > tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-com > 231-322-2787 > > On 12/23/2014 6:15 PM, Rocky Smolin wrote: >> >> I make the individual table your primary table with all the contact info, >> etc. And a field which would be an FK to the Organization table. That >> way >> many individuals could belong to an organization. For the donation record >> I'd put two FKs, one to the individual, one to the organization. >> >> hth >> >> Rocky >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com >> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tina Norris >> Fields >> Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2014 3:05 PM >> To: DatabaseAdvisors-Access >> Subject: [AccessD] This seems to get me often >> >> Hi, >> >> I do keep having this sort of problem to solve. An example would be that >> a >> donor could be an individual or an organization. So, a donation record >> might have an individual ID as an FK or it might have an organization ID >> as >> an FK. I'm uncomfortable with setting up a table where one of two FKs >> will >> be blank. Another example would be that a client of a law firm could be >> an >> individual or an organization. Another example would be that a telephone >> could be associated with an individual, or a household, or an >> organization. >> What is the logical way to handle these? What am I not seeing? >> >> Thanks for your guidance. >> >> TNF >> >> -- >> Tina Norris Fields >> tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-com >> 231-322-2787 >> >> -- >> AccessD mailing list >> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >> > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- Gary Kjos garykjos at gmail.com