How to Recognize the Antipattern
If the user interface or documentation for your project describes an attribute to which you can assign multiple values but is limited to a fixed maximum number of values, this might indicate that the Multicolumn Attributes antipattern is in use.
Admittedly, some attributes might have a limit on the number of selections on purpose, but it’s more common that there’s no such limit. If the limit seems arbitrary or unjustified, it might be because of this antipattern.
Another clue that the antipattern might be in use is if you hear statements such as the following:
-
“How many is the greatest number of tags we need to support?”
You need to decide how many columns to define in the table for a multivalue attribute ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access