Intelligence in data fields

I was writing up a discussion of how users put intelligence into data fields where we didn't intend for them to. I'm sure you've all seen something called a 'part_number' where the users have figured out how to express who the vendor is, what the component is and anything else in something like: 'ABC#4125 332x56 2x4' Essentially this occurs when the users find that they need information about the part and there is either no field for it in their system, or they do not recognize that field. It always leads to trouble down the road for us because as needs change so does the way the user formats the values, so we wind up with datasets like: 'ABC#4125 332x56 2x4' 'DEFX22 654 xdf ' 'ABCXYZ#45 4' Over the years the users learn to instantly recognize the key information contained in that mysterious collection of characters. Then they want us to extract all of that information - what a challenge. "So this is sunday, what does it mean today?" I always get a kick in the nether regions when I see some IS team codifying the ability to encode this intelligence in a single field rather than break it out. Its one of the major selling points about Informix applications - the ability to rapidly alter the schema to give them the new field when they need it - rather than accepting their bastardization of existing data elements. cheers j. Oh, BTW Our version of 4gl is 4.10.UZ9 _____________________________________________________________________________ Jack Parker - Hewlett Packard, BSMC Boise, Idaho, USA jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com _____________________________________________________________________________ "Character is what you are in the dark" - Emilio Lizardo _____________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions expressed herein are my own and not those of my employers. _____________________________________________________________________________