Re: Table design issue....

Pierre,

> Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Am I being crazy?

Yes.  To be blunt, you've picked one of the worst possible database
designs for any useful purpose.  This is, however, a common mistake as
far too many books and training courses teach how to write SQL without
teaching how to design a database.

What you really want is something like this:

CREATE TABLE tables (tableid CHAR(1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY);

CREATE TABLE attributes (tableid CHAR(1) NOT NULL REFERENCES tables(tableid),attributeid CHAR(1) NOT NULL,CONSTRAINT
tab_attr_PKPRIMARY KEY (tableid, attributeid)    );
 

This makes your select statement possible:SELECT tableid FROM attributes WHERE attributeid = 'C'GROUP BY tableid ORDER
BYtableid;
 

If your application requirements are more complicated than this, you
need to either: a) hire a relational design expert, or b) become one.
Books I'd recommend for the latter are Database Design for Mere Mortals
and Practical Issues in Database Design (F. Pascal).

-Josh Berkus





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