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Old June 7th, 2004, 07:41 PM
David
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Default Table design question - advice needed

I have a design problem that has me stuck.
I'm modifying a system.
It currently supports internal clients who are retrieved from a userdirectory table. This table cannot be changed and is imported bi-weekly.
Now they want me to cater for external clients, they will not be in thois table and can never be.
So I created a new table for external clients.
There will only be one client per record either internal or external.
What do I put in my main table? Its looking like 2 columns external client and internal client only one of which will be populated.
Or I could have an intermediate table for all clients but this would be a maintenence nightmare since it would have to be updated every time we import the userdirectory.
The main table has to have dozens of joins with other tables, would this not be complex for clients if I have 2 columns?

Anyone have any good ideas?