Professional SQL Server™ 2005 Programming

7.7. Database Reuse

This is almost never thought of, but you can create databases that facilitate reusability. Why do I say that it's almost never thought of? Well, just trust me on this — developers think of things like reusable components. Things such as objects to validate credit cards, distribute mail, stream binary information in and out — these are all things that you would immediately think about placing in a repository and using over and over again. For whatever reason, however, databases just don't seem to get thought of in that way.

Perhaps one reason for this is that databases, by definition, store data. Data is normally thought of as being unique to one company or industry and, most of all, as being private. I'm guessing that you then automatically think of the storage container for that data as also being personal — who knows?

Contrary to popular belief, however, databases can be built to be reusable. Surprisingly, to do this you apply a lot of the same concepts that make code components reusable — most of all compartmentalization and the use of common interfaces.

Just remember to make sure you have a really a good fit before you try to reuse an existing database structure. Much like most things in programming that I've seen reuse of, it's very possible to have your reuse become a situation where you are trying to use the wrong tool for the job, and things can actually become even more expensive then they would have been if you had written things from scratch to begin ...