Data Element Name - Example of ISO/IEC 11179 Naming in Relational Databases

Example of ISO/IEC 11179 Naming in Relational Databases

ISO/IEC 11179 is applicable when naming tables and columns within a relational database.

Tables are Collections of Entities, and follow Collection naming guidelines. Ideally, a collective name is used: e.g., Personnel. Plural is also correct: Employees. Incorrect names include: Employee, tblEmployee, and EmployeeTable.

Columns are Properties of the Entity and are named in a multi-part format:

The Object part may be omitted from a name when the property is within its object's context. The Qualifier is used when it is necessary to uniquely identify an element. For example, columns on the WorkOrders table would be expressed as:

For Requirements_Text, the full name (i.e., the name that goes in the registry, or data dictionary) is WorkOrder_Requirements_Text.

• Object is WorkOrder in full name.
• Property is Requirements in full name.
• RepresentationTerm is Text in full name.

The Requesting_Employee_Number and Approving_Employee_Number columns have Qualifiers to ensure that the data element names are unique and descriptive. The Object part of the element name is also omitted because it is declared within the object context.

Note that for the examples provided, an underscore was used as a separator. A separator is not mandated by ISO/IEC 11179 but is recommended.