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How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

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    How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

    I thought I understood how to do this until I acutually tried to do it today. In A5 table designer, how would I construct the following table set (just focusing on the blue tables for now)?

    Northwind Entity-Relationship Diagram

    My initial impulse is to designate the 'Orders' table as the primary table. From there I would construct a Many-to-One link to the 'Customers' table. Finally, I would construct another Many-to-One link to the 'Employees' table. However, A5 appears to allow only One-to-Many and One-to-One links. It does not appear to allow Many-to-One links. I suspect that I am misunderstanding a fairly fundamental aspect of A5 use or DB design. If I can get off the starting block here, I think I will be able to make some decent progress. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

    Jim

    #2
    Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

    how would I construct the following table set
    Perhaps you don't need to? Alpha has tools to look up the employee details based on the employee id. It doesn't need to be part of the set.
    There can be only one.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

      In addition to what Stan said...

      My initial impulse is to designate the 'Orders' table as the primary table. From there I would construct a Many-to-One link to the 'Customers' table.


      Since Alpha uses sets, you could create a 1:M set like this:
      Code:
      Customers [1:M] Orders
      But if you need to see orders linked to Customers, then:
      Code:
      Orders [1:1] Customers
      Finally, I would construct another Many-to-One link to the 'Employees' table.

      Similarly:

      Code:
      Orders [1:1] Employees
      and/or

      Code:
      Employees [1:M] Orders
      and/or

      Code:
      Customers [1:M] Orders [1:1] Employees
      or

      Code:
      Orders [1:1] Customers 
             [1:1] Employees
      etc etc
      Peter
      AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

      [email protected]
      https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


      Comment


        #4
        Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

        Originally posted by Peter.Greulich View Post
        In addition to what Stan said...]

        Since Alpha uses sets, you could create a 1:M set like this:
        Code:
        Customers [1:M] Orders
        But if you need to see orders linked to Customers, then:
        Code:
        Orders [1:1] Customers
        Finally, I would construct another Many-to-One link to the 'Employees' table.

        Similarly:

        Code:
        Orders [1:1] Employees
        and/or

        Code:
        Employees [1:M] Orders
        and/or

        Code:
        Customers [1:M] Orders [1:1] Employees
        or

        Code:
        Orders [1:1] Customers 
               [1:1] Employees
        etc etc
        Peter,

        Thanks for your response. I am not sure I understand it, but you have given me something to chew on. Let me see if I can restate, in part, what you are telling me.

        Are you saying that my desired set, Employees[1:M]Orders[M:1]Customers ...the structure shown in the Northwind ERD,
        is functionally equivalent to, Customers[1:M]Orders[1:1]Employees[1:M]Orders? Is this a 'work-around' structure in A5 that you are suggesting; the 'work-around' being necessary since A5 does not allow overt [M:1] table links? Am I following you? With this structure, wouldn't the database engine be more confused than I am? :) Seriously, in addition to the expected Orders[M:1]Employees link, this structure includes an Orders[1:1]Employees link as well. Is that not ambiguous? Is that not problematic?


        Thanks,

        Jim

        Comment


          #5
          Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

          Originally posted by Peter.Greulich View Post
          In addition to what Stan said...]

          Since Alpha uses sets, you could create a 1:M set like this:
          Code:
          Customers [1:M] Orders
          But if you need to see orders linked to Customers, then:
          Code:
          Orders [1:1] Customers
          Finally, I would construct another Many-to-One link to the 'Employees' table.

          Similarly:

          Code:
          Orders [1:1] Employees
          and/or

          Code:
          Employees [1:M] Orders
          and/or

          Code:
          Customers [1:M] Orders [1:1] Employees
          or

          Code:
          Orders [1:1] Customers 
                 [1:1] Employees
          etc etc
          Peter,

          Thanks for your response. I am not sure I understand it, but you have given me something to chew on. Let me see if I can restate, in part, what you are telling me.

          Are you saying that my desired set, Employees[1:M]Orders[M:1]Customers ...the structure shown in the Northwind ERD,
          is functionally equivalent to, Customers[1:M]Orders[1:1]Employees[1:M]Orders? Is this a 'work-around' structure in A5 that you are suggesting; the 'work-around' being necessary since A5 does not allow overt [M:1] table links? Am I following you? With this structure, wouldn't the database engine be more confused than I am? :) Seriously, in addition to the expected Orders[M:1]Employees link, this structure includes an Orders[1:1]Employees link as well. Is that not ambiguous? Is that not problematic?


          Thanks,

          Jim

          Comment


            #6
            Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

            Originally posted by drjgs200 View Post
            Is that not ambiguous? Is that not problematic?
            Not really. Alpha uses an alias on the 2nd instance of the Orders table.
            Peter
            AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

            [email protected]
            https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


            Comment


              #7
              Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

              Thanks again, Peter. I will try your suggestions.

              Jim

              Comment


                #8
                Re: How to construct Northwind table set in A5?

                Hi Jim
                Don't confuse the entity relationship diagram with sets. A diagram would likely use multiple sets for different purposes.
                As Peter's examples indicate;-
                First determine what your focus is centered on for a particular task or query and design a set for that - there is need only for 1-1 or 1-many.

                Comment

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