Dear oh dear !

I always worry when the phrase "I just want to..." turns up, I really do. Reminds me of "I don't want to learn to drive, I just want to get in a car and go places" !

Perhaps the "whacky schemas" referred to earlier occur because those designing the schemas don't really understand the relational model properly, and instead of viewing a database as a collection of predicates & facts lapse into programmerese and think of a database as a collection of records in files !

It's been said before in the replies above, but a visit to http://www.dbdebunk.com can only help (although it can get a little heated at times...)

- Tony

In a world without walls or fences, what need have we of Windows or Gates ?