Robert Pepersack wrote:
> My agency has a contractor that created a PostgreSQL database that he
> calls "object-oriented". I noticed that the contractor has more than
> one value in a column separated by commas. In the relational world,
> this obviously violates first normal form. When I asked about it, he
> said that it's because PostgreSQL is an "object-oriented database".
> I'm very skeptical.
What kind of "comma-separated"? If it's an array (i.e. perhaps a column
declared as text[]), then maybe it's not that wrong, as has been said
elsewhere on the thread (but I would agree with you that if there's no
specific reason to do things that way, it's probably less right than
your contractor wants to admit). If it is actually a single text column
with comma separated values, and the splitting is done client-side, I'd
hazard that you're probably right in placing blame in the contractor.
--
Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.