Database Standards
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Database Names
The name of a database is more or less irrelevant as it is normally referenced once in a file and never mentioned again.
Some provisos:
- Must only contain lowercase letters [a-z], numbers [0-9] or an underscore [_].
- Name must start with a letter, and end with either a letter or a number
- Multiple words may OPTIONALLY be seperated by an underscore (recommended)
Table Names
Table names are very important to the usablity of a database from a code point of view. If you name them illogically or inconsistantly it wastes a lot of time.
Rules:
- Must only contain lowercase letters [a-z], numbers [0-9] or an underscore [_].
- Name must start with a letter, and end with either a letter or a number
- Multiple words MUST be seperated by an underscore (recommended)
- Should use singular form rather than plural (ie. use 'project' rather than 'projects')
Field Names
We need to logically name fields so that we can logically deduce the contents.
Rules:
- Where there is only one field to establish the primary key, and that key is numerical, the field MUST be named "id".
- Any field that is a reference to a foreign key should be named table_id. So if we have a table called "project" then a foreign key to that table would be "project_id".
Exceptions:
- ctime - creation time of record
- mtime - modification time of record
Queries
Queries should use UPPERCASE for reserved SQL keywords, eg:
"SELECT * FROM users WHERE password='mouser';"
Conclusion
I've broken most if not all of these rules at one time or another (a review of some of my work on the kruel website shows that) but i think this is heading towards the right direction.
