[dennispg]

ive got a database design problem that i cant figure out. ive looked
around online quite a bit for any resources on design patterns that i
could try to use, but none of them seem to really fit perfectly. im
guessing id have better luck if i start looking in some books, but i
thought id try here first in case any one would be willing to help me
out.

it seems like my problem would be a fairly common one, so maybe im
just thinking about this the wrong way. basically what i want is a
sort of inventory system where every item has a unique id. given this
id, (most probably input from a barcode) i want to be able to find
information on it. theres all kinds of very different items though so
all the items cant be stored in the same table. i found the subclass
pattern is about what i want... i store all the common information in
a base table, and keep information unique to each type of item in a
different table, with its key being the same as the key in the base
table. the problem is, i dont see how to know what table to look in
for the extended information given just the id?

thanks for any help in advance!

[blindman]

You need a field on your main table that indicates the object type, and which you can use to determine where to look up additional data.

blindman