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From: Dennis on 2 Mar 2010 22:40
Kathy, Fred, John,



"Why do you have a Family Last Name on the Family table? There is probably
ony one sentence that I'd disagree with, and that is when Dennis said that
listing a seperate family name would be a duplication of data and thus
violation of normalization"


Ah, I see you point and agree. Thanks for the education! I love to learn
and you folks have made me think about things that I've not had to think
about before. I learn a little more each day.



Kathy,

Good luck with your database.


Thanks,
From: Fred on 3 Mar 2010 08:37
Hello Kathy,

Some answers get driven by design principles that are good to always
follow, some get driven by (those with) practical experience, but your
particular needs should also drive answers......in the end what's "right" is
what works well for you.

In general, the more thorough/powerful table structures accomodate a wider
range of scenerios in a fully databased fashion(vs. stuffing exceptions into
notes fields etc.) , but they are usually are also more complicated and more
work. Having separate tables for families and individuals is the most
powerful/versatile of the discussed structures (short of/ not counting Allen
Browne's more powerful and abscract structure only briefly mentioned) But
"powerful/versatile" can be a bad idea for a particular situation if it is
overkill.


The one thing I question structurally in your description is a subform for
addresses. This also implies a separate table. IMHO addresses are "one to
one" information for one of the other tables, and thus should probably be in
the table and form with that other entity.

Good luck!

Fred





From: Kathy R. on 3 Mar 2010 17:55
Fred wrote:
> The one thing I question structurally in your description is a subform for
> addresses. This also implies a separate table. IMHO addresses are "one to
> one" information for one of the other tables, and thus should probably be in
> the table and form with that other entity.


Hi Fred,

Normally I would agree with you about the addresses. I do, indeed, have
a separate table for addresses. Within our congregation we have close
to a dozen families that head south for the winter (2-3 months at a
time) to permanent addresses there. I have to change their addresses
each winter and spring. In addition, we have another half dozen or more
college students. They have both home and college addresses and would
also need to be changed twice a year. Plus, the church is in a college
town and we have students from the college that attend that we keep
track of - again a home and college address.

For this reason I've put the addresses in a separate table. This way I
can just check which is active instead of changing the address back and
forth each year. I debated with myself about this and finally decided
that, once I have the tables/forms/reports setup, it would be easier to
just check a yes/no box than change the address each time.

Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate them!

Kathy R.
PS I won the debate, by the way. ;-)
From: Fred on 4 Mar 2010 08:18
Kathy,

Of course you are absolutely right.

Sincerely,

Fred


PS: What was the debate?
From: Kathy R. on 4 Mar 2010 11:30
Fred wrote:

> Fred
> PS: What was the debate?

That would have been the debate with myself (which is the reason I'm so
sure I won) about whether or not to put the addresses in a separate
table. It was just my slightly skewed sense of humor coming to the fore
:-)

Kathy R.
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