Table design

[discusmania]

hi guys....
is there anywhere i can fine guide on how to design a good db table ?

thanks for the help

 

[bobmm]

try looking on

http://www.msdn.microsoft.com

... there usualy are loads of white papers etc on teh subject

 

[chiph]

Usually designing a table is fairly straight forward. It's the relationships between tables that can get tricky. You need to be able to think like an application designer (given this piece of information, can I get from here to there), while at the same time doing low-level database tasks.

One tip:
Use an auto-increment field to provide uniqueness and for updating records (pick a record from a list, save the ID for when you later update it after editing the record). But use a "Code" or "Name" field for your primary key and for linking tables. The reasoning behind this is if you ever have to copy rows from one database to another, the auto-increment fields will never line up, but if all your relationships and keys are based on your code field, then they're OK.

Chip H.