Susan Harkins
ssharkins at gmail.com
Tue Sep 2 08:34:19 CDT 2014
After our discussion on normalization I've simplified the table structure in the animal tracking database quite a bit. I especially appreciated the idea that all animals have birth parents -- they just won't always be known. I've expanded that to cover institutions too -- all animals come from an institution, just sometimes, it's our own (ie, they're born here). But that brings me to an interesting possibility regarding the institution table. There won't be very many because we work with just a few in our region. I'm leaning toward thinking of the institution table as a lookup table. At least, I can use it that way, even if, traditionally, it wouldn't be. However, they'll need the ability to add institutions on the fly, but that's no big deal. Any warnings? Thanks! Susan H.