Hello,

If you have two tables and you want to link them together using a foreign key. One table is only going to have a limited number of rows, for example department but the other table called employees could have 1000s of rows.

If they where going to be linked, which would be the best way to link them and why? Or does it not make any difference?!!

6 rows: department ( dep_id, dep_name, dep_address, ..... , emp_id*)

1000s rows: employee ( emp_id, emp_name, emp_address, ..... )




6 rows: department ( dep_id, dep_name, dep_address, ..... )

1000s rows: employee ( emp_id, emp_name, emp_address, ..... , dep_id*)

Thanks,

newbie

Do your departments contain one and only one employee?
Do your employees belong to one and only one department?

The answers to these questions should guide you.

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

OK there are six different departments and there are 1000 employees

yes - but what are the answers to the questions?

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

Perhaps one department has one employee, and the rest of the departments could be divided between the other 999


could be perhaps a small number of emplyees are soley employed by one department. The rest of the employees are divided by three or more departments.

Still just as unclear..

Ok - I'll put it another way. Suppose instead you have 1 department and 10 employees (to keep the numbers small).

Regarding your first suggested design:
For your one department you have a row. You enter an employee id for that row. Your department row now has an employee id entered in the emp_id column.
So - you have assigned 1 employee to your department and 9 employees not assigned to any department. How do you assign these 9 to departments?

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

EDIT - Pat the Erudite phrased the questions better

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

To re-prhase Pootle's questions:

1) How many employees can be in a department?

3) How many departments can an employee be in?

-PatP