From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2008-07-01T01:29:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Tables: Unnecessary duplication of id fields

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 11:09 AM, brian <brian@arielpremium.com> wrote:
> =begin
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm fairly new to Ruby, but I am trying to understand the relationship
> between database structure and models.
>
> My difficulty is that I have five or so tables all linked together and their
> primary key column is a serial number
>
> The tables are a set of tables called:
>
> itemmasters
> products
> prices
> subprices
> imprints
> etc.
>
> products, prices, and subprices, imprints, etc. belong to itemmasters based
> on a serial number
>
> How can I get about linking them without having to have a column in
> itemmasters for each of the sub tables?
>
> For instance:
>
> product_id
> price_id
> subprice_id
> imprint_id
>
> This would be somewhat silly as they all contain the same information.
> Right?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Brian Anderson
>
> =end

While not really a Ruby or Rails question, it seems you have
rows/tuples that point to a singular row in another table.  In other
words, reverse it.  Have columns in your "subtables" that is the
foreign key of the "master" one.

It's possible I misread your question, though.  I do that pretty frequently :-)

Todd