i have to design a db for a hardware store for a project. was wondering, for the inventory. should i put everything in one table, for example all hammers, all screw drivers wrentches, etc. or should i split them up into tables?

That depends on what you're trying to track. You can usually store all your items in one table for a basic inventory database. There are a few hundred thousand variations that may require additional tables...

so i can basically store everything in there? so my table will look somewhat like this?

Inventory:
itemID:
itemDescriptionhammer,screw driver, etc)
itemBrand:
itemSize:
itemType:
quantity:

ok with this design wont there be a ton a repeats for the desciptions. because if the hardware store has 15 different types of hammers and 30 different types of screw driver then there will be 15 and 30 of the same itemDescription names. is that ok. that why i was thinkng of creating a table for each one.

the potetnial problem you have is how you consider products. potetnailly you are duplicating the item description for different sizes. that may not be a major issue in hardware but it could be (say for example saftey boots) - the descriptuion is the same (eg "Clodhoppers in brown", but the customer is just as interested in size

also does the brand matter, are customers buying generic woodscrews or say GKN woodscrews.

how do you pan to cater for equivalance (ie product x can be substitued by product y

how do you plan to cater for the differning measurements of items - some products will be sold by length, some by area, some by volume some by another measure (eg shoe / clothing sizes) how do you want to handle size ranges eg some clothing may be 30-36".

having analysed the business requirement then you can move on to table design.

I would suggest looking at the ready-made models at http://www.databaseanswers.org/index.htm rather than reinventing the wheel. There was also a generic retail/inventory model available from IBM in Boulder, but I can't find the link. It is somewhere in one of the threads on this discussion group.

Nice idea, gernerally I'd agree whole heartedly (ther is little point re-inventing - but if its for a piece of academic coursework then I'd genuinely reccommend that the start from scratch is a good idea. by all means look at whats out there, but you need to understand and be able to explain why something is modelled in a particular manner.