I'm putting together a system to track scientific samples of various types. The "various types" is what's making me scratch my head at the moment.
Each sample type has a particular set of attributes, some of which are unique, others are shared with other sample types. For example, a fluid sample might have "Concentration" as one attribute, while a soil sample might have "Clay Content" as one. My idea is to have a Samples table that contains the fields common to all types of samples, and then a related table containing the Attribute fields for each sample type. The question is, should I use a separate table for each sample type, or a single table for all of them, that displays only appropriate fields in the view for a particular type? There seem to be advantages and disadvantages for each approach. I can think of about a dozen different types of samples that might need to be tracked offhand, but there would probably be more. A single large table that has fields "available" for the user to define their own sample types might be better in some respects. So, I'm looking at the choice between many smaller related tables, that might get unwieldy in numbers of tables, or one large table that might get unwieldy in terms of loading and keeping individual fields organized. I'm open for guidance! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django users" group. To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en.
