Database Records, Fields, Subfields and Subsubfields

The Future Lab database engine Bbuuzzb stores data in records which are a collection of fields. A field can be further sub-divided into subfields which can be further divided into subsubfields.

Picture a database record as a three dimensional array where the field is the first dimension, the subfield as the second dimension and the subsubfield as the third dimension. To put it another way, a two-dimensional array can be placed into any field within a record.

When designing a database table structure, you would typically normalize the data and choose key fields. These key fields would have some identification code (value) repeated in each record within the table. When storing data into subfields and subsubfields using a Bbuuzzb data table, the data does not have to be normalized and the key values do not have to be repeated.

As an example, lets say you have a business that needs to keep track of its customer purchases. Using most database products, you would create a purchase table and have the customer ID as the key field. If one customer had many purchases, this customer ID would be repeated in each purchase record for that customer. As an example:

    Field # Description

      1     Customer ID
      2     Purchase Date
      3     Purchase Time
      4     Total Amount of Purchase

Using the Bbuuzzb database, you would also create a purchase table but instead of have one record per purchase you would have one record per customer with the customer ID in the first field and an array of purchases in the second field. This array could consist of each purchase being a subfield and the details regarding the purchase as a series of subsubfields. An example:

    Field # Subfield #  Subsubfield #   Description

       1       -            -           Customer ID
       2    appended        1           Purchase Date
       2       "            2           Purchase Time
       2       "            3           Total Amount of Purchase

Each time a purchase is made, a new subfield is appended to field two consisting of a series of subsubfields.

Goto Top | Future Lab Home | Contact Webmaster | Feedback

Copyright © 2002-2006 Future Lab, Last Updated Jun 30, 2006