<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">[Sorry if this is a dupe....our IT organization
cannot keep our domain name straight so some posts have been bouncing]</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">To me, this is a "normalization"
question, akin to relational database normalization. The ultimate
goal of any database design is to be as normalized as possible, reducing
duplication and segmenting data into tightly focused groupings.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">However, there are certainly patterns
in relational design where over-normalization leads to poor performance
or unwieldly complex code (queries). To that end, there are definitely
times where denormalization makes complete sense (reality vs. purism).</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">greg.fenton<br>
----<br>
Greg Fenton<br>
Consultant, Solution Services<br>
iAnywhere Solutions</font>
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<td width=40%><font size=1 face="sans-serif"><b>"Robert P. J. Day"
<rpjday@mindspring.com></b> </font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Sent by: kw-pm-bounces@pm.org</font>
<p><font size=1 face="sans-serif">06/15/2005 07:30 PM</font>
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<div align=right><font size=1 face="sans-serif">To</font></div>
<td valign=top><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Christopher Calzonetti <elbie@trig.net></font>
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<div align=right><font size=1 face="sans-serif">cc</font></div>
<td valign=top><font size=1 face="sans-serif">KW Perl list <kw-pm@mail.pm.org></font>
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<div align=right><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Subject</font></div>
<td valign=top><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Re: [kw-pm] a philosophical
question about hashes</font></table>
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<br><font size=2><tt>On Wed, 15 Jun 2005, Christopher Calzonetti wrote:<br>
<br>
> On Wed, Jun 15, 2005 at 04:33:39PM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:<br>
> ><br>
> > not so much a perl question as a software design question
that just<br>
> > happens to be associated with perl -- is it considered bad form
to<br>
> > create a hash in which each element's key is also one of its
fields in<br>
> > the corresponding value?<br>
><br>
> I can see at least one reason for doing this:<br>
><br>
> Say there are a bunch of different unique identifiers for a record,<br>
> and you point to a reference that contains the full record.<br>
><br>
> In your example, you might also have a hash based on driver's<br>
> license number, and you want to use the same records. Well then,<br>
> the record would need the SSN/SIN, as it wouldn't be the index.<br>
<br>
i'd thought of that as well. i *can* see the value in the<br>
duplication, i was just wondering if anyone had strong opinions on<br>
this either way.<br>
<br>
rday<br>
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