June 2010
Intermediate to advanced
266 pages
5h 55m
English
Content preview from Patterns of Data Modeling
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Chapter 13
Softcoded Values
Most database applications directly map concepts to tables. The direct approach is effective for applications with well-defined entity types and attributes. However, it fails for applications with open-ended requirements.
Consider person data. Persons are prominent in applications and can involve much data. For example, a police database could have a lengthy description of suspects including height, weight, eye color, and hair color. The top of Figure 13.1 shows a database table for Person, using a direct representation (hardcoding). The bottom shows an alternative representation using softcoding. The columns in boldface are primary keys.
Figure 13.1
Database tables for hardcoding vs. softcoding.
If the requirements ...
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