Ron,
> God bless you, Tiny Tim! I had a similar discussion on [general]
> last week regarding arrays.
<grin> sure. Although arrays can be atomic and thus properly relational; it
just depends on how they are used. Examples:
array of ordered molicules making up a genome: atomic & relational
array of points making up a graph: atomic & relational
array of languages spoken by a salesperson: non-atomic, non-relational
array of products offered by a supplier: non-atomic, non-relational
The real question to ask oneself when using an array data type is: "is the
data I am representing an ordered set which does not have meaning as
individual elements, and does not have the same meaning in a different
order?" If the answer is yes, then please use an array. If the answer is
no, then you should be using a related "child" table instead.
--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco