Jim, Great question!
I use the ol'Reddick VBA naming conventions. tbl - table idx - index fld - field You can search them in google, but I'd like to know if MySQL has its own established conventions too. Regards, A$ ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, August 1, 2003 10:03 am Subject: RE: standardized naming system ? > > > > Hello list, > > > > is there a common naming system for db objects ? > > Thousands. > > > Like: > > > > 1) Tables: mytable, tblmytable, tbl_mytable > > > > 2) Indices: idx_anindex > > > > 3) Columns: int_somenumber, date_lastupdate > > > > 4) id for the numerical primary key e.g. table customers.id > > and then for referencing foreign keys > > table addresses : addresses.customer_id or > > addresses.customer_fk > > > > OK, I know I could name them the way I want but perhaps there is > some> kind of common sense in this regard ? > > Common sense will do, but here is my take on it. > > There are three main objectives - portability, maintainability and > consistency. > > General. > Use long names. Don't abbreviate unnecessarily, but don't go to > far that > you have > to rename all your tables if you move to a different DBMS. A max > of 30 > chars should fit most DBMSs. > > Use lower case names, with words separated by underscores '_'. > Some DBMSs > are case > sensitive, others aren't and some convert all names to upper case > ( this is > an ANSI > standard feature, I believe). If you use camel case ( > studentClassScores),this could become > STUDENTCLASSSCORES which isn't very readable, whereas > STUDENT_CLASS_SCORESis much better. > > Don't use reserved words. Most DBMSs allow you to use reserved > words with > various degrees of effort, but why bother. Also try to avoid > simple names > which > might be a reserved word in another DBMS. > > Tables. > Give tables a clear simple name which represents the content. If > it holds > student records, call > it "students"; course details, "courses" etc. > Also assign each table a unique 2-4 letter prefix for use in > naming objects > which belong to that table. > > Columns > Again say what it is. I use the prefix referred to above in all > columnnames, but some people think that > is a waste of name space. > e.g std_id, std_surname, std_forename, student_birthdate, crs_name, > crs_tutor_id, etc > > Constraints > Use the prefix > Primary Key std_pk > Foreign Keys std_fk_col ( i.e. <source_prefix>_FK_<target_prefix> > Unique Keys std_uk_nn where nn is a sequence number. Some > people like > std_uk_<column_name>, but > if you have a composite > key, that doesn't work. > > Indexes > Where an index is used to enforce (or instead of) a unique or > primary key > constraint, same name as the constraint. > Primary Key index std_pk > Unique Index std_uk_nn > Non-unique index std_nu_nn > > If indexes share the same namespace as constraints, stick an i_ > on the > front of the index name. > > > > -- > MySQL General Mailing List > For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql > To unsubscribe: > http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
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