Re: Array of Integer

In article <1nkbhkINNp31@access.digex.com> grimes@access.digex.com (Seth Grimes) writes: >aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) writes: >>>InterBase (from Borland) and Progress are both RDBMSes with an array >>>datatype. I'd be interested in seeing more of an explanation of why this >>>violates normalization. I (also) have the view that an array can be >>>viewed as a single entity akin to a scalar field. > >>The first rule of normalization is to get rid of repeating groups (e.g. >>arrays). This is the basic requirement to get to 1NF. > >Would you please explain why you think an array of numbers is any more a >repeating group than a text string? Oh, come on. A text string is a single element; C treats it as a repeating group of individual characters, but that's hardly relevant. You might as well say an individual number is a repeating group because it is stored in a series of digits. Or bytes. Or bits. >To answer my own question, an array usually stores a set of function >values for some independent index value. For instance, a time series is a Not hardly. That may be how *you* are using arrays in your particular app, but I doubt that your generalization holds. >set of measurements as a function of time: y[i] = f(t[i]). But on the >other hand, a text string is (especially if you come from a C-type point >of view) really an array of character*1 and is essentially equivalent to a >time series if you transform your thinking from "index domain" to "time >domain." How about it? I disagree completely. The *column value* is the entity, not the characters that make it up. In your function case; the *number value* is the entity, not the digits that make it up. >Perhaps the real answer is that I'm not a theorist or a vendor, interested >in either defending my academic standing or in showing how the "extended" >but useful features of competing products violate the Twelve Commandments. If you want to turn this into an argument, I'm not biting. Normalization rules are clearly defined; that doesn't mean you have to normalize if doing so does not suit your application. There's nothing Ivory Towerish about it. >Seth Grimes, Consultant -- Alan Denney aland@informix.com {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland Disclaimer: Poster under influence of 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine Qvfpynvzre: Zl ubirepensg vf shyy bs rryf. "Whining is just anger coming out of a very small hole." -- Stuart Smalley