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DB Design Sales Table

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MevaD
Starting Member

32 Posts

Posted - 2014-01-07 : 18:19:44

Hi,

I am writing an application that will track sales opportunities and resulting work. The work that results from sales is classified into 3 distinct types each with a different set of attributes to track thus 3 tables.

So, my question is: what is the best way to set up primary keys and foreign keys in sales opportunities for the resulting work that will be generated?

Do I need to have columns for each of the work type tables in the sales table? That would result in NULL values in 2 of the Work ID columns in the sales table for each sale.

Is there a better/cleaner way to set this up. I'm especially concerned about pulling the data back later for reporting in an efficient manner.

Table: Sales
Sale_ID
Work_1_ID <-- ??
Work_2_ID <-- ??
Work_3_ID <-- ??

(Common set of attributes for all work types)

Table: Work_1 (Type 1)
Work_1_ID
Sale_ID

Table: Work_2 (Type 2)
Work_2_ID
Sale_ID

Table: Work_3 (Type 3)
Work_3_ID
Sale_ID

Thanks.

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2014-01-07 : 18:38:43

You don't need the work id references in the Sales table. You would use an outer join to the 3 tables to get all of the data you need.

Table: Sales
Sale_ID

(Common set of attributes for all work types)

Table: Work_1 (Type 1)
Work_1_ID
Sale_ID

Table: Work_2 (Type 2)
Work_2_ID
Sale_ID

Table: Work_3 (Type 3)
Work_3_ID
Sale_ID

Tara Kizer
SQL Server MVP since 2007
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

MevaD
Starting Member

32 Posts

Posted - 2014-01-08 : 10:32:32

OK, thanks. Makes sense.

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