Thank you,
that is exactly how I was looking at it too, however the specific database have loads of these so I thought that maybe there is a reason for it and I might be missing something due to limited experiences.
-----Original Message-----
From: Oliveiros d'Azevedo Cristina <
oliveiros.cristina@marktest.pt>
To: Machiel Richards <
machielr@rdc.co.za>,
pgsql-novice@postgresql.orgSubject: Re: [NOVICE] Reasons for creating linking tables?
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:26:19 -0000
I would like to get the point of view from you guys out there who has had a lot of database experience.
While busy looking into a database that have a lot of issues I have found the following scenario :
- Let's call the 3 tables in question tables a,b & c.
- Currently table a has got a FK referencing table b
- table b contains only 1 field called id which is the PK and also a FK referencing table c
- table c is once again a table with a couple of fields.
My question on this is, why create the linking table?
Surely the linking table can be removed and the data referenced directly between tables a & c?
Is there a specific reason why this would need to be done?
* In this specific case, frankly, I can't see none...
It seems you have a relation Many-to-One between table a and c.
I usually place an associative table in the middle when I have a many-to-many relationship, which is not the case.
In this scenario I would consider table b superfluous (specially when it has no other fields except its ID) and short circuit it.
That's my oppinion
Best,
Oliver