Hey folks,

Whilst working on a database today I came across a column named "temporary_fix". Being that this is in production, I'm thinking it wasn't nearly temporary enough.

It occurs to me that there must be some great stories out there of disturbing names for columns, tables and other objects.

Give us your best.

I don't know about truly disturbing names but some with obscure meanings like "CD Text1" that is used for multiple purposes. Sometimes an email address, sometimes a user name, sometimes a client user ID - all built into the application but having no absolute meaning to the DBA. Trying to dig through code to determine what the flippin' field really means and then find "it depends" on the client. Wait'll I find the developer(s) that created that nonsense!!

That's nothin'

I've got this;

company_id
policy_id
start_date
transaction_no
version_no
step
file_name
override_rate
comment
rate_amount
rating_type
excess_amount
endorsements_1
endorsements_2
endorsements_3
endorsements_4
endorsements_5
endorsements_6
entry_date
user_id
xs_imposed
endorsement_imposed_1
endorsement_imposed_2
endorsement_imposed_3
endorsement_imposed_4
endorsement_imposed_5
endorsement_imposed_6
removed_endorsements_1
removed_endorsements_2
removed_endorsements_3
removed_endorsements_4
removed_endorsements_5
removed_endorsements_6
below_gross
cover_type
policy_section
rate_percent
rate_table
sequence_no
gr_rate_index
location_sequence_no
pm_quote_id
pm_quote_transaction_id
targeted_or_xref_data_group
target_or_xref_data_group_seq_no
temp_numeric_store_1
temp_numeric_store_2
temp_numeric_store_3
temp_numeric_store_4
temp_numeric_store_5
temp_numeric_store_6
level_1_premium_value
level_summary_type
per_item_value
points
score
comp_key_for_grcompd
premium_description
excess_code
additional_data_1
additional_data_2
additional_data_3
additional_data_4
additional_data_5
additional_data_6
additional_data_7
additional_data_8
additional_data_9
additional_data_10
additional_data_11
additional_data_12
additional_data_13
additional_data_14
additional_data_15
additional_data_16
additional_data_17
additional_data_18
additional_data_19
additional_data_20
xref_entity
referral_reason_1
referral_reason_2
referral_reason_3
referral_reason_4
referral_reason_5
referral_reason_6

nice....
nice to see that developers have got to grips with normalisation before being let loose on live systems

Most disturbing? I have the one that beats them all.

Was working on a MAS500 DB. Had a devil of a time just connecting to it.
When I got in, I found the usual crappy naming convention; all the column names were truncated to four characters (think you can see this coming?). More so, instead of truncating the actual words, they truncated the phonetic spelling of the word.

I'll give you one guess as to the name of the Country field in the address table. Hint: it was not COUN........

i_will_murder_you_in_your_sleep

It was boolean.

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

Is it the use of underscores you object to?

No - it was the NULL value. You just want to know where you are with that sort of thing. Was it genuinely unknown? Had the operator simply forgotten to fill it in? Wouldn't happen with a TRDBMS you know.

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

From a 3rd party expenses application
Each of which is char(100) - brilliant!

Best of all - we store information in extra_column_11 and no other - I have no idea why either.

There is also a table on a legacy application server called "scream". I'd find this funny but it's one I've implemented

Amongst others on the table:

CL FText1
CL FText2
CL FText3
CL FText4
CL FText5
CL FText6
CL FDate1
CL FDate2
CL FDate3
CL FNum1
CL FNum2
CL FNum3
CL FNum4
CL FNum5
CL FNum6
CL FCur1
CL FCur2
CL FCur3
CL FCur4
CL FCur6
upsize_ts

And, no, I did not implement this. That would make ME scream......Still not sure what ever became of CL FCur5???

Many, MANY moons ago, I worked with a distributed process control system whose supervisory node ran on a honeywell level 6 minicomputer. Patchs could be implemented using a proprietary language called 'keytran' (sort of a red-headed stepchild of fortran and basic.)

To hook the program into the running software, you used a command line app named Hook_Program, called with the mnemonic HP, and to unhook a patch, you used, logically enough, the Unhook_Program, called with a mnemonic of UP. In the printed documentation for Unhook_Program, the program name you unhooked was YOURS.

That's right... the manual said "UP YOURS" !

I worked on an HR system that had a column named STD. When I asked they said it stood for short term disability.