Re: Simple Database Design Problem
Posted by: Rick James
Date: June 15, 2011 07:31PM

Disambiguation of persons is beyond the scope of a database engine.
* Alternate spellings
* Nicknames (Superfreak)
* Initials instead of names (R. James)
* etc.
Those lead to having two records of one "person"

Date of birth helps in assuring that two persons are the same.

In the database, you should move quickly to a person_id, or author_id, etc, where the id is an AUTO_INCREMENT. The `name` field should be indexed (not UNIQUE) to assist in lookups during the disambiguation phase.

If you don't have control over names...

To do a "complete" job, you need a UI (or other mechanism) for allowing a human to examine two `person` records and declare that they should be merged. And similarly, have a way to split a person into two persons.

For now, simply assume that a different name is a different thing (person, template, etc.)

If you do have control over names...

If you allow a user to "name" a template (etc), then be sure to direct him down two paths:
* Create new template -- squawk if the name already exists.
* Locate an existing template -- squawk if the name does NOT exist.
Users will be comfortable with that.

In either case, use an AUTO_INCREMENT, PRIMARY KEY, id under the covers.

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