I am working on a complex database to store Business information as well as specific into about that Business... here is the tricky part...
The individual companies are sorted by Business type (i.e. Computer Software Companies, Child Care Providers, Commercial Building Contractors, etc.) and each Business type needs to hold a simi-customized set of information (i.e. Commercial Building Contractors needs Total AZ Billings for Commercial Bldg., $ Awarded for Completed Contracts, % of Work Subcontracted, No. of Local Employees, and Areas of Specialty). I will refer to each type of information as a Category. Each Business Type has between 4 and 7 Categories. Within a Business Type there are between 10 and 30 companies listed. There will be just over 200 Business Types listed within my database structure, as well as around 100 unique types of Categories.
Primarily, I need to be able to query and format each Business Type, to include the Companies information as well as each Category that is associated with the Business in a flat spreadsheet style layout.
Now, I intend to create a unique report (if needed) for each Business Type as needed to customize the look (i.e. column widths and any other special formatting needed) of each Business Type,
Here is where I stand currently with this project…
I have 4 tables,
1. Business (it includes basic contact info that is common to all business)
2. Category (is basically a list of all possible categories)
3. BusinessCategory (a Many-to-Many relationship container that links the BusinessID to the CategoryID and includes the corresponding Value)
4. BusinessType (a list of business types that a business can belong to)
This structure seems to work in that it can handle the customization of categories for each Business within a BusinessType. The problem I am running into with this structure is creating a query to handle the data and create a “flat” table for a BusinessType with each Business and it’s categories.
It may be that I can use this structure to do what I need done, however I think that there must be a better way to structure my data to work the way I need it to work. I really appreciate your input on this!
The individual companies are sorted by Business type (i.e. Computer Software Companies, Child Care Providers, Commercial Building Contractors, etc.) and each Business type needs to hold a simi-customized set of information (i.e. Commercial Building Contractors needs Total AZ Billings for Commercial Bldg., $ Awarded for Completed Contracts, % of Work Subcontracted, No. of Local Employees, and Areas of Specialty). I will refer to each type of information as a Category. Each Business Type has between 4 and 7 Categories. Within a Business Type there are between 10 and 30 companies listed. There will be just over 200 Business Types listed within my database structure, as well as around 100 unique types of Categories.
Primarily, I need to be able to query and format each Business Type, to include the Companies information as well as each Category that is associated with the Business in a flat spreadsheet style layout.
Now, I intend to create a unique report (if needed) for each Business Type as needed to customize the look (i.e. column widths and any other special formatting needed) of each Business Type,
Here is where I stand currently with this project…
I have 4 tables,
1. Business (it includes basic contact info that is common to all business)
2. Category (is basically a list of all possible categories)
3. BusinessCategory (a Many-to-Many relationship container that links the BusinessID to the CategoryID and includes the corresponding Value)
4. BusinessType (a list of business types that a business can belong to)
This structure seems to work in that it can handle the customization of categories for each Business within a BusinessType. The problem I am running into with this structure is creating a query to handle the data and create a “flat” table for a BusinessType with each Business and it’s categories.
It may be that I can use this structure to do what I need done, however I think that there must be a better way to structure my data to work the way I need it to work. I really appreciate your input on this!
