From: mcstockX@Xenquery   
      
   "Johnson"  wrote in message   
   news:BhS_c.838$2H5.165@trndny07...   
   | Here's what I was doing, it is obviously stupid because i have exceeded   
   the   
   | "too many fields defined error"   
   |   
   | I have to create a database driven application that allows students to   
   | update the records of which classes they took, what grade they received,   
   and   
   | what semester they took the class in.   
   |   
   | I was using one database table, with some unique identifiers for each   
   | student.  Then for each of the 50 classes they have to take, I had 4   
   fields   
   | each, one for whether they took it or not, one for the semester, one for   
   the   
   | year, one for the grade they received.   
   |   
   | So all in all I had 4x50 fields for the classes and then the various   
   unique   
   | identifiers.   
   |   
   | I just can't fathom how to simplify this problem.  Anybody got any ideas?   
   |   
   |   
      
   you seem to be treating the relational database as if it were a big   
   spreadsheet   
      
   you need to get at least a rudimentary understanding of data normalization,   
   and basic entity/relationship analysis   
      
      
   get a good book on relational database design (Richard Barker's CASE   
   Methodology Data Modelling or David Hayes Patterns in Data Modeling are   
   still excellent references)   
      
   you will find that you need many, many more tables, likely:   
      
   STUDENTS -- 'master list' of students, likely with STUDENT_ID as the primary   
   key   
   CLASSES -- 'master list' of classes, likely with CLASS_ID as PK   
   SCHEDULED_CLASSES -- list of each occurrence of each class, likely with   
   CLASS_ID plus CLASS_DATE or a system-assigned sequence number as PK   
   STUDENT_CLASSES -- list that relates STUDENTS to STUDENT_SCHEDULED_CLASSES   
      
   don't just start creating these tables -- find out why 4 (or more) tables   
   are needed by reading up on basic relational database theory   
      
   ++ mcs   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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