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set design and links

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    set design and links

    I know from past successful designs (and errors along the way) that it is helpful to design the set from the idea of what you need in the report. I need to know how much of each of several nutrients is in a particular quantity of a particular food, and I need to use this info to see which of the foods are higher or lower in certain nutrients. I am getting the info about the nutrients from an extremely complex and giant govt. database which doesn't report in a way I can use it. So I made the following set:
    Table - fields
    food - foodid

    #2
    RE: set design and links

    I know from past successful designs (and errors along the way) that it is helpful to design the set from the idea of what you need in the report. I need to know how much of each of several nutrients is in a particular quantity of a particular food, and I need to use this info to see which of the foods are higher or lower in certain nutrients. I am getting the info about the nutrients from an extremely complex and giant govt. database which doesn't report in a way I can use it. So I made the following set:
    Table - fields link info
    food - foodid parent
    foodname
    fooddesc
    fquan - fquanid child 1 - one to many
    foodid link on foodid
    fquan
    fnut(nutrient)-fnid child 2 - one to many
    fqid link on fqid
    fnutrient
    fnamt

    Well, it didn't work. So I thought there must be a link problem, but then I thought there may be a design problem.

    For each food, there is one name, but there can be many descriptions, such as milk, liquid or dry or liquid skim, etc.
    for each food with description, there are possible quantities, such as 100 edible grams, cup, medium (if it's a friuit or veg.) etc.
    for each specific description of each food, we need to know how much protein, phosphorous, sodium, etc.

    i thought of making the quantities a lookup table, entering the quantities into the nutrient table, and then only put two tables in the set - but i don't think that's the answer either.

    i can't believe after all this time with alpha i'm asking this question, but if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks. sorry for the second post, i hit the wrong key and it was sending before i knew what was happening.







    Comment


      #3
      RE: set design and links

      Ellen,

      I find your issue interesting. Here's why. At this very moment I am at my daughter's hourse. Last Friday she gave birth to twins. Let me tell you, we are into nutrition big time here.

      So far I have spent today assembling products which arrive with "some assembly required" and disclaimers of legal liability if improperly assembled.

      Back to nutritional information.

      Perhaps we should think of skim milk, dry milk and whole milk not as one food with three descriptions but as three separate foods. Then we could handle the information with three tables:

      Food linked 1:N to quantity linked 1:N to nutrients

      Perhaps the quantity table could be eliminated but then what would you do if when you got two ways of measuring a nutrient for the same food (e.g. grams and ounces)?

      If I understand your design, the difference is that you have both child tables linked to the same parent while mine has a child and grandchild table.

      Does this approach advance the issue?

      Bill
      Bill Hanigsberg

      Comment


        #4
        RE: set design and links

        Thanks for the help, good luck with the grand kids and assembly!

        I didn't pose the right problem - i did have 3 tables, linked parent, child, grandchild, but I wrote child 2 in my posting. The description went in the parent table so each food was unique with its description.

        There is a quantity of 100 edible grams for each kind of food there is. For separate foods, there are also additional quantities - like cups, pieces, etc. So I need to know how much phosphorous is in 100 grams of milk, and how much is in 100 grams of baked potato, and how much is 100 grams of french fries, etc. Also, how much of a particular nutrient is in a real portion that we would eat - like a cup of milk or a medium potato.

        Similar for the other targeted nutrients.

        Thanks again.
        Ellen

        Comment


          #5
          RE: set design and links

          Hi Ellen - and I thought I was the only person using the USDA .dbf's - here's my set:

          food_des
          nutr_data (1 to many by NBD_no)
          nutr_def (1 to 1 by nutr_no)
          weight_r (1 to many by NBD_no)
          measure (1 to 1 linked by msre_no)

          Remember when I was showing my recipe Application? The set above is the 1 I use to get all the nutr. values. The App is almost 14MB zipped so it's impossible to transmit. In addition I have changed from using the USDA Food_des table to using my own X_ref table which is in "English" rather than "Governmentese".

          You will have to use a lot of xbasic to get all the nutrient values. Many of the nutrients USDA tracks are not needed anyway. Be prepared to convert Tsp to grams, 1/4 C to grams etc.

          If you get hungup, let me know. Hope to see you on Sept. 11th.

          -Barry

          Comment


            #6
            RE: set design and links

            Discovered that my indenting was lost so:

            indent Nutr_data by 5 (child of food_des)
            indent nutr_def by 10 (child of nutr_data)
            indent weight_r by 5 (child of food_des)
            indent masure by 10 (child of weight)

            -Barry

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