Home ›

At the Forge - Shoehorning Data into a Database

Issue 173

From Issue #173
September 2008

Sep 01, 2008  By Reuven M. Lerner
 in
Databases make the world go round, but sometimes fitting a round data peg into a square database hole is less than ideal. What's a programmer to do?
Conclusion

Not all data fits cleanly into two-dimensional tables. When this occurs, you can try to shoehorn your data into an inappropriate container. Or, you can try to use the help that is built in to one or more levels of your software stack. If you use PostgreSQL, inheritance can be really useful. If you use Rails, you can take advantage of polymorphic associations, allowing you to treat two or more models with a common API as similar. This isn't the sort of thing you'll do each day, but it's a useful skill to have on hand for cases when you need to take unusual data.

Resources

To learn how PostgreSQL allows for inheritance, read the on-line manual at www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/ddl-inherit.html.

Rails Cookbook, by Rob Orsini, and published by O'Reilly, has some good information about polymorhphic associations.

The Rails Wiki has some good examples and descriptions of polymorhphic associations at wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/UnderstandingPolymorphicAssociations.

Reuven M. Lerner, a longtime Web/database developer and consultant, is a PhD candidate in learning sciences at Northwestern University, studying on-line learning communities. He recently returned (with his wife and three children) to their home in Modi'in, Israel, after four years in the Chicago area.

______________________

Webcast
More Resources
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers

Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.

Learn More

Sponsored by AMD

White Paper
More Resources
Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.

Learn More

Sponsored by DLT Solutions