This is long, so bear with me.
I am trying to come up with a way to model a general graph in SQL which
does not use the adjacency list model.  Here is what I have so far and
I'd like to get any ideas on it.

I've been accustomed to thinking of things either having a value or
not. If something has no value then, to me, its value is null. Its
value is an empty string (whatever "it" is). Different to having a
value of zero. Different to anything with a value. Now, as I read up on

I have been reading an article by C.J.Date - "Object Identifiers vs.
Relational Keys" in Relational Database Writings 1994-1997, and while
I'm not really an OODBM's fan, there are a few things in it that I've
found confusing:

I thought I'd see if you guys can help me with an SQL query that even
Oracle admins couldn't solve without using an Oracle only function
DECODE.  I don't have DECODE on the DBMS I'm using, so I thought maybe

Im trying to design a threaded discussion group in an intranet
application. Basicly i want to design the database and the subsequent
sql statements so that i put a minimum of workload on the server/client
handling the application, avoiding looping through large arrays. I want

(i am not a developer so excuse me if this obvious)
i have data in the form
<foriegn_key> ,<data1>, <data2>, (<data3>, <data4>)
                                                  (<data3>, <data4>)

I have been struggling with this problem for awhile.  There may be an
obvious answer and I just don't know a lot about database
normalization.  I am trying to design a database for  information about
a company.  I want the database to be in BCNF.

Since this is a database theory group and  I'm bored by the null and 3vl
threads I ask yet another elementary question:
Suppose you have this relation R(A,B,C) with the following functional
dependencies AB->C and C->B.

Whenever the subject of nulls comes up,  I always make reference to the
curious incident of the dog in the night.
I'm referring to "Silver Blaze", a Sherlock Holmes mystery by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle.  It occurs to me that there are some people who have never read

Dear database experts,
Can somebody enumerate the problems with an updatable view for me ?
With an updatebleview:= joined set of related tables and relations
from which rows can be updated, inserted and deleted like you

A little while ago, dawn mentioned in the monster NULL thread that she was
busy trying to
reduce NULLS from SQL into an SQL-wrapper.
After she said that she couldn't simply filter out the missing data,  the

I'm interested to see any comments the group has on something I'm
(haphazardly) working on which in part has to do with guaranteeing the
ACID properties without locking.
In case it's of any interest this was partly prompted by several

I have posted a similar request on comp.databases.
I need some ideas on a mySQL database design for a reservation system,
much like a doctor's office (hopefully without the long wait).
My client has 12 work areas. She wants her clients to be able to sign up

Hi!,
I am building a web directory similar to the dmoz and the yahoo
directory. The categories get updated often.
How do I find the subcategories from just the names of the ancester and

Hello, is there anyone who can help me with the 'logic' I have to apply with
a normalization?
Let me be positive: some of you may answer.
The case: a school timetable