Hi,
I've just started a new job and I've got a question regarding database design. One of my goals is take our core OLTP database and make is more compliant to the NCES Standards. This database is the source for a number of major Systems. My initial approach is to build a data warehouse to serve as clean source of data for these other systems. I could use it as the foundation for some systems and export xml for the others. I was wondering if it made sense to create user designed data-types to represent the different elements in the Standards. An example would be that the NCES standards define an element called "Identification Code" which is AN with a length of 30. This could be used to store student id or room id or employee id. Should I just create an IdenticationCode Data type
Does it make since to use User Defined Data types in this approach? What are the benefits and limitations?
Thanks
Patrick