Names and more Names

[Paul Purvis]

Also Rick, there is a big question too in that do you split out address lines into separate fields.
There are some big benefits there as well in trying to keep addresses in a standard format and when it comes to cleaning up addresses or matching addresses or verifying that an address exist is just as much challenging.
It is wise to keep a addition fields for the whole address and another city state zip to allow placement for other programs to standardize your addresses for mailing purposes.
I like the physical and mailing address to be separate even though they might be the same.

[Michael Mattias]

I like the physical and mailing address to be separate even though they might be the same.

Given your druthers, better I think to design in terms of 'function'

eg Ship To (many possible), Bill to, Remit To, contact (many possible), department (many) etc etc etc.

Than again, the druthers are often gone when your turn comes.....

[Chris Holbrook]

That makes a Customer table, an Address table, and an Address Type rules table, some indexes, foreign keys if your database does 'em. As the Address table may also serve for addresses of entities other than Customers, attention to the keylengths, types and value ranges of the Customer and other addressable entities will be rewarded.

[Michael Mattias]

That makes a Customer table, an Address table, and an Address Type rules table, some indexes, foreign keys if your database does 'em.

Yes, it does. And let me tell you, the Point.Man ERP system has 'em all, and it is really, really powerful and flexible when it comes to specifying - and searching for - multiple addresses for any 'entity'

[Rick Kelly]

That makes a Customer table, an Address table, and an Address Type rules table, some indexes, foreign keys if your database does 'em. As the Address table may also serve for addresses of entities other than Customers, attention to the keylengths, types and value ranges of the Customer and other addressable entities will be rewarded.

This whole thread is indeed becoming more interesting.

In my schemas I allow multiple, time and purpose sensitive addresses. (I do the same basic thing with other items such as phone numbers, contacts, etc) There is no hard limit although I have yet to see any clients manage more than a half dozen or so per person/organization and there is a default primary value for each. I keep separate columns of address lines - usually about 3-4, city,location,postal code, and country are also kept in discrete columns. Postal and country columns are backed up by look-up tables. I usually have the postal code first in the data entry tab order so I can look it up and fill in other form fields and auto tab forward. When data is arranged to be saved, I'll build a final mailing and apply some rules based on the country (i.e. Do i show the country name?) and save it as well for display/printing purposes. I've searched different country postal authority web sites to see what outgoing mail address formats they support for both domestic and overseas forwarding. For all this to work, I also need to have available my client's postal address.

I could do the same thing for names and just avoid all the parsing hassles and I'm looking at how best to do that as well. I'm keystroke/mouse click sensitive in my interface designs and always looking at minimizing both. I'm a believer that data entry basics should not use the mouse unless absolutely necessary. I've found that judicious use of the enter and tab keys and some intelligence working while data entry is going on is both intuitive for a majority of folks and increases the rapidity of entry.

In schemas where both individuals and organizations are maintained separate tables are used and relationship rules between the two defined.

[Michael Mattias]

The whole thng about multiple addresses - well, multiple anythings - is, as soon as you decide on a hard limit, the user 'discovers' he forgot to tell you about that 'other' one he needs.

As soon as someone tells me they need 'n' of something, I design either for 'n+2' or 'as many as you want.' Hard limits set off warning bells in my head.

(The other big warning bell? "This is only a temporary program.")

[Paul Purvis]

fyi

free software to parse names

http://www.semaphorecorp.com/nc/namechop.html

free software to set/tag gender of first name
http://www.semaphorecorp.com/gender/gender.html