SQL Server Database Design - 1 Table vs 2 Tables - sql-server

I have a table named Report and another named ReportRights. The purpose of these tables are to restrict access to a report based on a user or user group.
The Report Rights table is
ReportRightsId (int - Surrogate Key)
ReportId (int - Foreign Key to Report)
UserId (int - null FK to Users)
GroupId (int - null FK to Groups)
HasAccess (bit default 0)
The issue with this is that I want to add a Unique Constraint to ReportId+UserId as well as to ReportId+GroupId but in this table structure I cannot because ReportId 1, UserId 1, Group Id NULL, and trying to add a permission for report id 2 trips the reportid 1 groupid null unique constraint.
Is this bad design? Should I have 2 tables: ReportGroupRights and ReportUserRights instead? If i were to make a front-end UI they would both be managed by the same 'grid' so 1 table makes sense to me...but the inability to enforce only 1 user record or only 1 group record is problematic.
What is the best practice for this problem?

It isn't bad design.
Make GroupId nullable, so you can as well enter permissions for user only.
Also, unique constraint should be on three columns together: ReportId, UserId, GroupId.
So you can allow more then one report per user/group.

Related

Sql condition with two foriegn key columns

I'm new to sql and
have a table dbo.Student
**column** **datatype**
Student Id Primary Key int not null
ClassId Foriegn Key int not null
BaseId Foriegn Key int not null
ClassId can have multiple base Id but not duplicates
I'm looking to write a condition If any ClassId have duplicate rows with same BaseId's
Example for good data
a b c
1 2 1
2 2 2
Example for bad data
a b c
1 2 1
2 2 1
Thanks
You can use below query to check if you have any duplicate rows in the table
select ClassId,baseid, COUNT(*) NumberOfDuplicate
from student
group by ClassId,baseid
having count(*) >1
There are "unique" constraints in SQL server. You can add one to that column and it will prevent the entry of a row in which that column value is not unique. Unique constraints are allowed on columns that are not keys.
This SO answer has both the gui solution and script solution:
stackoverflow.com/questions/5181877/
Gist of linked answer:
ALTER TABLE TableName ADD CONSTRAINT ConstraintName UNIQUE(ColumnName1, ColumnName2)
This will put a unique constraint on the combination of Column1 and Column2.
In SSMS object Explorer if you expand the table and look under "Keys" to see your constraint.
GUI steps:
Open SQL Server Management Studio.
Expand the Tables folder of the database where you want to create the
constraint.
Right-click the table where you want to add the constraint and click Design.
In the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
In the Indexes/Keys dialog box, click Add.
Choose Unique Key in the Type drop-down list.

Handling multi-select list in database design

I'm creating a clinic management system where I need to store Medical History for a patient. The user can select multiple history conditions for a single patient, however, each clinic has its own fixed set of Medical History fields.
For example:
Clinic 1:
DiseaseOne
DiseaseTwo
DiseaseThree
Clinic 2:
DiseaseFour
DiseaseFive
DiseaseSize
For my Patient visit in a specific Clinic , the user should be able to check 1 or more Diseases for the patient's medical history based on the clinic type.
I thought of two ways of storing the Medical History data:
First Option:
Add the fields to the corresponding clinic Patient Visit Record:
PatientClinic1VisitRecord:
PatientClinic1VisitRecordId
VisitDate
MedHist_DiseaseOne
MedHist_DiseaseTwo
MedHist_DisearThree
And fill up each MedHist field with the value "True/False" based on the user input.
Second Option:
Have a single MedicalHistory Table that holds all Clinics Medical History detail as well as another table to hold the Patient's medical history in its corresponding visit.
MedicalHistory
ClinicId
MedicalHistoryFieldId
MedicalHistoryFieldName
MedicalHistoryPatientClinicVisit
VisitId
MedicalHistoryFieldId
MedicalHistoryFieldValue
I'm not sure if these approaches are good practices, is a third approach that could be better to use ?
If you only interested on the diseases the person had, then storing the false / non-existing diseases is quite pointless. Not really knowing all the details doesn't help getting the best solution, but I would probably create something like this:
Person:
PersonID
Name
Address
Clinic:
ClinicID
Name
Address
Disease:
DiseaseID
Name
MedicalHistory:
HistoryID (identity, primary key)
PersonID
ClinicID
VisitDate (either date or datetime2 field depending what you need)
DiseaseID
Details, Notes etc
I created this table because my assumption was that people have most likely only 1 disease on 1 visit, so in case there's sometimes several, more rows can be added, instead of creating separate table for the visit, which makes queries most complex.
If you need to track also situation where a disease was checked but result was negative, then new status field is needed for the history table.
If you need to limit which diseases can be entered by which clinic, you'll need separate table for that too.
Create a set of relational tables to get a robust and flexible system, enabling the clinics to add an arbitrary number of diseases, patients, and visits. Also, constructing queries for various group-by criteria will become easier for you.
Build a set of 4 tables plus a Many-to-Many (M2M) "linking" table as given below. The first 3 tables will be less-frequently updated tables. On each visit of a patient to a clinic, add 1 row to the [Visits] table, containing the full detail of the visit EXCEPT disease information. Add 1 row to the M2M [MedicalHistory] table for EACH disease for which the patient will be consulting on that visit.
On a side note - consider using Table-Valued Parameters for passing a number of rows (1 row per disease being consulted) from your front-end program to the SQL Server stored procedure.
Table [Clinics]
ClinicId Primary Key
ClinicName
-more columns -
Table [Diseases]
DiseaseId Primary Key
ClinicId Foreign Key into the [Clinics] table
DiseaseName
- more columns -
Table [Patients]
PatientId Primary Key
ClinicId Foreign Key into the [Clinics] table
PatientName
-more columns -
Table [Visits]
VisitId Primary Key
VisitDate
DoctorId Foreign Key into another table called [Doctor]
BillingAmount
- more columns -
And finally the M2M table: [MedicalHistory]. (Important - All the FK fields should be combined together to form the PK of this table.)
ClinicId Foreign Key into the [Clinics] table
DiseaseId Foreign Key into the [Diseases] table
PatientId Foreign Key into the [Patients] table
VisitId Foreign Key into the [Visits] table

Access Relationship Design

I am fairly green when it comes to working with Access and databases in general.
I am asking for your help in figuring out how to set the correct relationships for three tables:
Table 1 contains:
(no unique ID)
SalesTripID
EmployeeName
StartDate
EndDate
*Each record on this table is related to 1 specific employee's 1 specific sales trip
Table 2 contains:
HotelName
HotelStart
HotelEnd
HotelTotal
*This table may contain multiple records that belong to only 1 record on table 1 (for instance, an employee would stay at 2 hotels during their sales trip)
Table 3 contains:
(no unique ID)
MealVendor
MealDate
MealTotal
*This table, similar to Table 2, may have multiple records in it that are tied to the 1 SalesTripID
How do I set something up to show me each SalesTripID, the multiple Table 2, and the multiple Table 3 records associated with it? Do I need to add a Primary Key anything other than Table 1? Is writing a query involved to display the information? Because I am so green, any and all feedback is welcome.
The following is my recommendation:
Add a SalesTripId field on tables 2,3. This is called a ForeignKey.
If SalesTripId in Table1 is not unique (i.e. each employee can have a trip with the same Id as another employee), add another field (Id) in Table1. You can use Access' AutoNumber type for that field.
I recommend always having a primary key in your tables. But you can skip the Id fields in tables 2,3.

Microsoft Access 2013 - Multiple Foreign Keys in the same Record

I’ve encountered a problem with pulling multiple foreign keys into one record in a Microsoft Access table.
I’ve got two tables with these fields:
Table 1:
Owners
Fields:
Owner ID (Primary Key)
First Name
Last Name
Table 2:
Ships
Fields:
Ship ID (Primary Key)
Ship Name
I need to create a relationship between Table 1 and Table 2 which shows who owns the ship. I’ve tried adding a number field to Table 2 called Owner ID (Foreign Key) and this works absolutely fine.
Working Example:
Table 1 – Owners Table 2 – Ships
Owner ID (Primary Key)__ Ship ID (Primary Key)
First Name \ Ship Name
Last Name \________Owner ID (Foreign Key)
Unfortunately my ships in Table 2 can have multiple owners (up to 5) at the same time. My problem arises when I try to create a series of linking fields in Table 2.
Not Working:
Table 1 – Owners Table 2 – Ships
Owner ID (Primary Key)__ Ship ID (Primary Key)
First Name \ Ship Name
Last Name \ Owner1 ID (Foreign Key)
\______/ Owner2 ID (Foreign Key)
\ Owner3 ID (Foreign Key)
Can anyone recommend any workarounds so I can show multiple owners taken from the Owners table in the Ships table?
Thanks for your help!
Your database design is definitely incorrect.
In the case you explain, you have a many-to-many relationship between Ships and Owners, which MUST translate into a "relationship table" in the relational model.
In this case: a [Ownership] table, with 2 fields, being the 2 Primary Keys (PK) of the related tables.
In other words, you need 3 tables:
Ships(ShipId, ShipName, Whatever) PK is ShipId
Owner(OwnerId, FirstName, LastName) PK is OwnerId
OwnerShip(ShipId, OwnerId) PK is made of the 2 FKs
The problem is that it looks like Access doesn't allow Nullable FK's and so all Owner fields would have to be filled in, no matter how many owners there are.
The only solution to this I can think of is to introduce a ShipOwner table, which has ShipID and OwnerID columns (as FK's to the Ship and Owner tables). You can then have as many Owners as you like.
Pros: You can add things like %Owned if that matters
Cons: The software has to enforce the limit of 5 owners
Biggest Pro: it will work!
Cheers -
EDIT: The first para is wrong: Access does let you add nullable FK's. However I still thing the suggestion here is a good one. Repeating Groups (Owner 1 to 5) is against Normalisation rules, and this suggestion is normalised.

A better database design on SQL Server?

In SQL Server, I need to design a User table. It should have a UserID (int), a RoleID (int) and a UserName (nvarchar(255)).
A user can be assigned with a name but possibly multiple roles so a UserId may correspond to multiple RoleIDs. This makes it difficult to assign primary key to UserID as UserID may duplicate.
Is there any better design other than breaking it up into multiple tables?
You should have:
1. a user table with UsertId(int), UserName (Varchar)
2. a role table with RoleId(int), RoleName(Varchar)
3. a user_role table with user_id(int), role_id(int)
And don't forget to add the proper indexing and foreign keys.
Ye, have a table Roles, then RolesUsers with UserID and RoleID, and lastly a Users table
edit: where the UserID + RoleID in the RolesUsers are a composite key

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