Thread: Junction Tables
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Old April 27th, 2010, 05:01 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Jeff Boyce
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Default Junction Tables

I'll add another observation ...

Your field [age] is guaranteed to require maintenance (i.e., "fixing").
Even if you don't use age = years, but the categories you mentioned, sooner
or later kids grow up. How frequently do you plan to revisit [age] and
update it? What criteria will you use?

What happens if someone else takes over the maintenance of this application?
Do they use the same criteria? Do they even know they need to maintain (AKA
"fix") that field? How frequently?

As an alternative, you could enter Date of Birth ... and use a function to
"calculate" age, or age category, or ...

That way, you NEVER need to maintain/fix that field's values!

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Access MVP

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".:RoKsTaR:." wrote in message
...
I'm just curious if it makes sense to use junction tables in this
instance:

student - studentID, studentfirst, studentlast, gender, age (adult, teen,
or
child), lessonday, status (current or retired)

address - addressID, address, city, province, postalcode

phone- phoneid, phonenum, extension, phlocation

email - emailid email, emailLocation

gaurdian - gaurdianid, gaurdianfirst, gaurdianlast, relationship


studentaddress - studentID, addressID
studentguardian - studentID, guardianID
GuardianAddress - guardianID, addressid
Studentphone - studentID, PhoneID
Guardianphone - guardianID, PhoneID

Notes on this table:
I'm a music teacher who teaches an average of 50 students at a time. I'm
trying to build a database track contact info, invoice students, and track
attendance. I'm starting off with the contact portion of the database and
once that is done I'll move on to the rest.

-Adult students don't have guardians
-Students with divorced parents may have 2 addresses and 4 Guardians. Not
many students in this situation
-Most parents have 2 emails and phone numbers
-Some young students may provide their own phone and email

That's it, thanks in advance