When I use a single table I can easily use constraints to enforce my
business logic, but what do I do when I normalize a single table into
multiple tables.
For example, imagine that my initial table has the columns ID, Name,
Salary with the constraint that Salary is not NULL. Now imagine that
I break this into two tables, one with ID and Name and another with ID
and Salary. I would like to have a constraint that prevents the
creation of a row with (ID,Name) in the first table unless a
corresponding row in the second table is also created.
I can enforce this logic with triggers, but it looks ugly and is
fairly brittle. Is there a better way or is this the dark side of
normalization?
Ok, I'm fairly new to .NET and even newer to the whole database concept. But, don't run away yet, I'm no idiot and I shouldn't have too hard of a time understanding your responses if you're kind of enough to give them. That being said, here's my dilemma:I'm trying to make a database of all the movies I own, the actors in them and the genre (s) they belong to. I have a set of tables that are in the 2NF (I think). I have a movies table, an actors table, a genres table, and two tables called movies_actors and movies_genres with primary-foreign key relationships to pull it all together (e.g. movie_id 1 has two entries in movies_genres, one for Action and one for Drama). My problem arises that when execute my monster query to pull ALL the data on one movie, I get a row returned for every combination of Genres and Actors in a movie. Example:movie_id movie_title comments actor_first actor_last genre_name1 Casino blah blah Robert DeNiro Action1 Casino blah blah Robert DeNiro Drama1 Casino blah blah Joe Pesci Action1 Casino blah blah Joe Pesci Drama And here's the query that produced that:1 SELECT movies.movie_title, movies.comments, actors.actor_first, 2 actors.actor_last, genres.genre_name 3 FROM movies INNER JOIN movies_actors ON movies.movie_id = movies_actors.movie_id 4 INNER JOIN actors ON movies_actors.actor_id = actors.actor_id 5 INNER JOIN movies_genres ON movies_genres.movie_id = movies.movie_id 6 INNER JOIN genres ON movies_genres.genre_id = genres.genre_id So, I want to put all the actors for one movie into the same cell in the datagrid (same with the genres) and still keep it sortable by actor or genre. Is this possible with the .NET 2.0 datagrid? Do I have some fundamental misunderstanding of how my tables should be structured? Am I just really far off and acting like a n00b?
First of all I think of myself as a software developer and by no means a database expert. So I am posting a question here hoping that someone will lead me in the right direction.
I am somewhat following the database diagram from AdventureWorks with my own "normalized" database and have a question on how to update the table(s).
Here is my situation: Table: Client ClientID (PK) Name ...
Table: Address AddressID (PK) AddressLine1 AddressLine2 City ...
The tables should be referenced properly, etc... So my question is, when I add a new Client record, how and when do I update the Client table, Address table and ClientAddress table? If my PK on the Client and Address tables is an autoincriment, do I need it before I can update the ClientAddress table? If so, what do I have to look for, or how do I get the newly created ID to update the ClientAddress?
Is this making any sense? - I'm a little lost/confused. So if anyone can provide me links to where I can learn more about stuff like this and/or post some ideas/solutions, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, if I am not clear on my issue, please ask and I will see if I can clarify it more.
I am pretty new to SSIS, so please excuse me if this is a trivial question.
I have a denormalized database table in an Access database that I need to import into several different tables in a SQL 2005 database. You can think of the Access table as a CustomerOrders table. For example customer related information (i.e. CustomerName, CustomerID, etc...) is repeated with each record in the Access table. When this data gets moved to the SQL 2005 database, I need to insert one record for each distinct CustomerName/Customer ID record into a Customers table. I then need to insert and link every "Order" record into an "Orders" table.
I am sure that this is probably a pretty common task, but I have not found any examples or articles explaining this particular situation. What ways can this be done?
I was thinking I need to loop through each DISTINCT Customer record in the Access (source) table and insert a Customer record into the destination database's Customer table. I would then need to iterate through each row of the Access (source) table and "Lookup" the appropriate CustomerID/Key Field and insert an "Order" record.
The Access table contains over 75,000 rows of data. I am looking for the most appropriate way of doing this with SSIS (so that I don't have to write a custom application to do this!). Any help, input, links, articles, etc. is appreciated!!
I have an allergy table which has a patientid and an allergy id. i would like to create a view(or SQL statement) that will give me a crosstab of a patient and there allergies(like below)
There will only be a max of 3 Country entries for each Employee. So I want to select the EmployeeId and get the three CountryIds so it would look like this:
I normalized the below tables but I am finding it difficult to copy data to the new tables. How do I copy data from existing table to the normalized tables? see the table structure below and other supporting information:
SKU_DATA(SKU,SKU_Description,Department,Buyer) Note: this table already has data in it. CREATE TABLE SKU_DATA ( SKU Integer NOT NULL,
[code].....
The table structure above have two three determinants( SKU,SKU_Description and Buyer). SKU and SKU_Description are candidate keys. Primary key is SKU.
hey i was just wondering how to display the constraints from a particular table and display all the constraints and wat columns they apply to, someone told me they keyword u use but didnt tell me how to use it :P
Three tables (all new, no data) will receive data from dBase and betransposed into them...All three have auto generated IDENTITY columnsand pk and fk constraints. Can someone provide me with anunderstandible sample?Thanks,Trint
Any script out there for disabling all the constraints on all the tables in a database?
Since there are more than 100 tables I need to import the data into, is there any generic script that I can use to disable all the constraints and triggers etc on all the tables?
I have 600 tables in my database, out of which 40 tables are look up value tables. I want generate truncate scripts which truncates all the tables in order of Parent child relationship excluding lookup tables. Is there any way to do this apart from figuring out Parent Child relationship and then writing the truncate statements for each of the table.
For example
EmployeeDetail table references Employee table DepartmentDetail table references Department table Department table references Employee table
Hey there, Trying to build a temporary table based on a parent table such that:select * into #staging from tbl_parent where 1=0 The temp table (#staging) picks up any NOT NULL constraints from the parent (tbl_parent) table and frankly, it doesn't meet my needs.I also tried to build a view of the parent (tbl_parent) table from which to base my SELECT INTO and still, the constraints followed. I'm thinking perhaps it possble to iterate though the temp table using syscolumns sysobjects and and set the column NULL properties on the temp table AFTER its been created but in this approach, I'm working to avoid directly referencing the columns by name. Is this possible? A better answer perhaps? Purpose of exercie is to populate a record in memory before it hits the table.I'll be constructing the record on the fly so that at first, I won't have all the fields to de-Null the columns.Also, I don't wish to lose the fact that some of my fields are Null - once I've fully populated my temp record, I'll insert into my 'real' table and will depend on constraints to throw the appropriate error. In this I won't have to built custom error checking in the stored procedure itself but instead depend on SQL SERVERS built capacity to the throw the error. This opens a bunch of possibilities for extensibility since if at a later date a constraint rule changes, one need only change the parent table definition rather than cracking open the stored procedure. Thank you for reading and a big thanks to you for replying :) Also,
CREATE TABLE [Table 2] ( Id varchar, MoreData varchar )
What is the link between these two tables?
I have databases that have zero keys defined, no foreign key constraints, no unique value constraints. I cannot assume that an Identity column is the Id. The end game is be able to output that [Table 1].[TableTwoId] = [Table 2].[Id] but cannot assume that all linkage in the database will be as simple as saying "if the field name contains a table name + Id then it is the Id in that table."
Currently have written a script that will cycle through all columns and start identifying keys in singular tables based on the distinctness of the values in each column (i.e. Column1 is 99% distinct so is the unique value). It will also combine columns if the linkage is the combination of one or more columns from Table 1 = the same number of columns in Table 2. This takes a long time, and it somewhat unreliable as IDENTITY columns may seem to relate to one another when they don't.
I have databases that have zero keys defined, no foreign key constraints, no unique value constraints. I cannot assume that an Identity column is the Id. The end game is be able to output that [Table 1].[TableTwoId] = [Table 2].[Id] but cannot assume that all linkage in the database will be as simple as saying "if the field name contains a table name + Id then it is the Id in that table."
Currently have written a script that will cycle through all columns and start identifying keys in singular tables based on the distinctness of the values in each column (i.e. Column1 is 99% distinct so is the unique value). It will also combine columns if the linkage is the combination of one or more columns from Table 1 = the same number of columns in Table 2. This takes a long time, and it somewhat unreliable as IDENTITY columns may seem to relate to one another when they don't.
I know this is probably a flick of a switch but I cannot figure out which switch. Setup is SQL Server / Stored Procedures / DAL / BLL(skipped for testing) / PL. The stored procedure queries from only one table and two columns are ignored because they are being phased out. I can run the stored procedure and preview the data in the DAL but when I create a page with an ODS linked to the DAL and a GridView I get this error. I checked every column that does not allow nulls and they all have values. I checked unique columns (ID is the only unique and is Identity=Yes in the table definition). I checked foreign-key columns for values that are not in the foreign table and there are none. Any ideas why do I get this? Failed to enable constraints. One or more rows contain values violating non-null, unique, or foreign-key constraints.
Hi, I am getting the above error when trying to load a report into my Web Application, I have tracked the error down to one specific field in my database. Even though this field is a NVarChar field and is of size 30 it would seem that there is an issue returning the value from the field. I can write it into the database no problems but when I try to get it out of the database it returns the above error. e.g MOB 401.908.804 - Fails 0401.907.324 - okay 8239 9082 (pager) - fails Anyone got an idea on how to fix this???? Regards.. Peter.
I am using the "Transfer SQL Server Objects Task" to copy some tables from database A to database B including data.
The tables, primary key constraints, Foreign key, data and all transfers nicely except for "DEFAULT CONSTRAINTS" on the tables.
I have failed to find any option in the "Transfer SQL Server Objects Task" task to explicitly say "copy default constraints". So I guess logically it should happen automatically but it doesn't. I hope it is not a bug :-)
I'm working on a couple projects and I've recently been trying to make everything fully normalized so updates are easier and I'm just wondering if there's a standard way to query and update normalized tables. For example: If I have table People with columns ID, FirstName, LastName, Height, Weight, ShoeSize, I can normalize that into two tables. Table People has ID, FirstName and LastName. Table PeopleDetails has PeopleID (FK), Property and Value. That way i can add more properties later right at the presentation layer if I like. Essentially I moved the data from being horizontal to being vertical. But doing a simple search for people means I have to search the details table and return a LOT more records (one each for Height, Weight and ShoeSize) not to mention any more details I might add later. With a lot of details, it seems like your performance would take a big hit and your code would get really complicated as your looping through a vertical dataset to find the properties you want. Or is there some other standard way of doing that? I'm just hoping that someone else has solved these problems and there's a standard set of functions out there for selecting and updating this kind of DB structure. Anyone?
Hi. I have a project I need to complete and I really don't know the first step I should take. Basically, we have a case management system that is normalized for the most part except for one major flaw: the clients table. Whenever we add a new case, we have to add the customer's name/address/phone etc. all over again. I would like to redo this current setup so we have one table just for clients and another table just for cases, so we don't have all this double entering all the time. Is there an easy way to do this or could someone point me in the right direction? It's on a SQL Server 2000 database. Thanks for your help!
I'm trying to generate a normalized XML document out of SQL serverthat reflects the datastructure of a table.Eg. This is what I would like to get<table name='MtFeedback'><field name="MtFeedbackIy" type="int"/><field name="Title" type="varchar" size="50"/><field name="FirstName" type="varchar" size="50"/><field name="Surname" type="varchar" size="50"/><field name="insertedon" type="datetime"/></table>I have tried two ways of and these are the results. The 1st techniqueis closeselect1 as Tag,null as Parent,'' as [table!1],null as [field!2!table-name],null as [field!2!name],null as [field!2!type],null as [field!2!size]UNION ALLselect2 as Tag,1 as Parent,null as [table!1],i.TABLE_NAME as [field!2!table-name],i.COLUMN_NAME as [field!2!name],i.DATA_TYPE as [field!2!type],i.CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH as [field!2!size]frominformation_schema.columns iwheretable_name = 'MtFeedback'FOR XML EXPLICIT<table><field table-name="MtFeedback" name="MtFeedbackIy" type="int"/><field table-name="MtFeedback" name="Title" type="varchar"size="50"/><field table-name="MtFeedback" name="FirstName" type="varchar"size="50"/><field table-name="MtFeedback" name="Surname" type="varchar"size="50"/><field table-name="MtFeedback" name="insertedon" type="datetime"/></table>The 2nd technique fails totally.select1 as Tag,null as Parent,i.TABLE_NAME as [table!1!name],null as [field!2!name],null as [field!2!type],null as [field!2!size]frominformation_schema.columns iUNION ALLselect2 as Tag,1 as Parent,null as [table!1!name],i.COLUMN_NAME as [field!2!name],i.DATA_TYPE as [field!2!type],i.CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH as [field!2!size]frominformation_schema.columns iwheretable_name = 'MtFeedback'FOR XML EXPLICIT<table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="MtFeedback"/><table name="categories"/><table name="categories"/><table name="products"/><table name="products"/><table name="products"/><table name="descriptions"/><table name="descriptions"/><table name="descriptions"/><table name="syssegments"/><table name="syssegments"/><table name="syssegments"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="sysconstraints"/><table name="dtproperties"/><table name="dtproperties"/><table name="dtproperties"/><table name="dtproperties"/><table name="dtproperties"/><table name="dtproperties"/><table name="dtproperties"><field name="MtFeedbackIy" type="int"/><field name="Title" type="varchar" size="50"/><field name="FirstName" type="varchar" size="50"/><field name="Surname" type="varchar" size="50"/><field name="insertedon" type="datetime"/></table>Cheers Dave
Hi I am new to SSIS. Probaly What I am asking is the simple one. But I dont know. I have a requirement. My Data source is Excel file and Destination is SQL Server . Excel file consist around 10k unnormalized rows which should be loaded to the multiple normalized master and child tables into the destination with the Primary key (identity column) and foreign key constrains. Even sometimes package should check for destination database table for matching Source column (Excel) code with the lookup table code (destination lookup table) and get the Primary key of Lookup table and put it into the destination table. Please help me the way to find the solution for this
I'm working with a database that is poorly normalized and am doing my best to increase the speed of our queries (changing the database itself is not an option right now). Any help with the following situation would be very much appreciated.
In the DataTable, the columns named ColA, ColB, ColC, etc., are described in the NameTable where Abbr would be A, B, C, etc., and FullName would be a "nice" text version describing what's stored in that column. For instance, a record in the NameTable might include Abbr = 'A' and FullName = 'Computer Science', and that means that ColA in the DataTable refers to 'ComputerScience'.
The table I'm trying to optimize the creation of in our ASP.NET application needs to have column headings that could be retrieved like this: SELECT DISTINCT CodeB, CodeC FROM DataTable WHERE CodeA = @CodeA (Note that CodeC is really just a different representation of CodeB--think 4-digit year vs. 2-digit year--for any given CodeA.)
The row headings for the table could be retrieved like this: SELECT FullName FROM NameTable
The cells of the table at any given intersection of a row heading and a column heading can be retrieved like this: SELECT Col? FROM DataTable WHERE CodeA = @CodeA AND CodeB = @CodeB (this selects a single value) Where the ? of Col? is determined by the Abbr version of FullName shown in the row heading, and @CodeB is determined by CodeB from the column heading.
Right now this table is generated using a lot of loops in the code of the page that require it to query the database for nearly every cell in the table. Even with this poor database design, there has to be a better way than that. I'm hoping there is a way to create a stored procedure that uses temporary tables and joins, or views, or something like that to create the table on the SQL Server and just send the data to the ASP.NET page in a form that can be directly databound to a GridView.
I'm building a system that imports data from several source, Excel files, text files, Access databases, etc. using DTS. The entire process revolved around MS SQL Server, by the way.
I figured I would create denormalized tables that mirror the Excel and flat files, for example, in structure, import data to those, clean up and remove duplicates there, then break those out into my normalized table structure later.
Now I've finished the importing part (though this is going to happen once a week) and I'm onto breaking up the denormalized tables.
I'm hesitating because I'm not sure I've made the best decisions in terms of process, etc.
I've decided to use cursors to loop over the denormalized tables and use batch insert statements to push data out to the appropriate tables.
Any comments? Suggestions? All is welcome.
I'm specifically interested in hearing back on the way I've set up the intermediate, denormalized tables and how I'm breaking them up using cursors (step 2 of the process below). Still, all comments are welcome. As are suggestions for further reading.
Thanks again...
simplified example (my denormalized tables are 20 - 30 colums wide)
denormalized table: =================== name, address, city, state, cellphone, homephone
I'm breaking up the denormalized tables like this (*UNTESTED*): =================================================
DECLARE @vars.... (one for each column in my normalized table structure, matching size and type)
DECLARE myCursor CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR SELECT name, address, city, state, cellphone, homephone FROM _DNT_myWideTable INTO
WHILE @@Fetch_Status = 0 BEGIN -- grab the next row from the wide table FETCH NEXT FROM myCursor INTO @name, @address, @city, @state, @cellphone, @homephone
-- create the person first and get the ID with @@IDENTITY INSERT INTO tblPerson (name) VALUES (@name)
SET @personID = @@IDENTITY
-- use that ID to coordinate inserts across other tables INSERT INTO tblAddress (FK_person, address, city, state, addressType) VALUES(@person, @address, @city, @state, 'HOME')
INSERT INTO tblContact (FK_person, data, contactType) VALUES(@person, @cellphone, 'CELLPHONE')
INSERT INTO tblContact (FK_person, data, contactType) VALUES(@person, @homephone, 'HOMEPHONE')
First of all, this is my initial thread here on dbforums. I come from the land of Broadband Reports and would like to say, Hello fellow DB enthusiasts. :)
I'm not a novice to relational databases (Access MDBs), but new to implementing a db via SQL SERVER (2000 in this case) and using Access Data Projects.
Sample Data would be 1 | CRYS | CRYSTAL STAIRS 2 | MAOF | MEXICAN AMERICAN FOUNDATION 3 | PATH | PATHWAYS 4 | CCRC | CHILD CARE RESOURCE CENTER 5 | CHSC | CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA ==========================================
THE REMAINING "FKs" FROM SCHOOL ARE SIMILAR, as is other tables and their relationships. The design of the foreign keys were made using sql and the keyword "REFERENCES" and "FOREIGN KEY."
My questions are: :confused: (1) Is the use of FK as a Constraint any different than using an INDEX and how? (2) Should I Alter the Tables to include CASCADING Up/Down? (3) Are the use of CHARs Ok for the Keys? (4) Have I over/under-normalized any of the relationships?
I have a "source" table that is being populated by a DTS bulk importof a text file. I need to scrub the source table after the importstep by running appropriate stored proc(s) to copy the source data to2 normalized tables. The problem is that table "Companies" needs tobe populated first in order to generate the Identity ID and then usethat as the foreign key in the other table.Here is the DDL:CREATE TABLE [dbo].[OriginalList] ([FirstName] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL,[LastName] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL,[Company] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[Addr1] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[City] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[State] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[Zip] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[Phone] [varchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL) ON [PRIMARY]GOCREATE TABLE [dbo].[Companies] ([ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,[Name] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL) ON [PRIMARY]GOCREATE TABLE [dbo].[CompanyLocations] ([ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,[CompanyID] [int] NOT NULL ,[Addr1] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[City] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[State] [varchar] (2) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[Zip] [varchar] (10) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,[Phone] [varchar] (14) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL) ON [PRIMARY]GOThis is the stored proc I have at this time that does NOT work. Ituses the last Company insert for all the CompanyLocations which is notcorrect.CREATE PROCEDURE DataScrubSP ASBegin Transactioninsert Companies (Name) select Company from OriginalListIF @@Error <> 0GOTO ErrorHandlerdeclare @COID intselect @COID=@@identityinsert CompanyLocations (CompanyID, Addr1, City, State, Zip) select@COID, Addr1, City, State, Zip from OriginalListIF @@Error <> 0GOTO ErrorHandlerCOMMIT TRANSACTIONErrorHandler:IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0ROLLBACK TRANSACTIONRETURNGOThanks for any help.Alex.
I have a database schema that has an Address table used to store addresses for different entities such as Customers and Employees. I want to reuse the same Address record between different Customers and Employees without duplicating any address information. I'm not sure what the best approach might be.
Should have I have seperate stored procedures on the Address table that update and insert new addresses, where each Address record remains immutable once created? (So the update stored procedure actually creates a new Address record if the data changes). These stored procedures would then be invoked by business logic and used in tandem with stored procedures that act on Customers and Employees to ensure that no address records are duplicated.
Or should I create a view on a Customer joined with Address, and similarily with Employee and Address, and have stored procedures that act on these views and ensure that no Address records are duplicated. Should I use instead of triggers to override the behavior of insert and update on the view to achieve these?
I'm rather lost as to what direction I should take. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!
I need to get this data into an SQL table in the following form so I can use it to further manipulate the data and update several other tables. I am thinking that UNPIVOT or CROSS APPLY might be the way to go, but am not sure how to code it.
Hi - I'm short of SQL experience and hacking my way through creating a simple search feature for a personal project. I would be very grateful if anyone could help me out with writing a stored procedure. Problem: I have two tables with three columns indexed for full-text search. So far I have been able to successfully execute the following query returning matching row ids: dbo.Search_Articles @searchText varchar(150) AS SELECT ArticleID FROM articles WHERE CONTAINS(Description, @searchText) OR CONTAINS(Title, @searchText) UNION SELECT ArticleID FROM article_pages WHERE CONTAINS(Text, @searchText); RETURN This returns the ArticleID for any articles or article_pages records where there is a text match. I ultimately need the stored procedure to return all columns from the articles table for matches and not just the StoryID. Seems like maybe I should try using some kind of JOIN on the result of the UNION above and the articles table? But I have so far been unable to figure out how to do this as I can't seem to declare a name for the result table of the UNION above. Perhaps there is another more eloquent solution? Thanks! Peter
