I'm creating a catalog that shows all the equipment we use in our company. The problem is that most of these equipments don't have the same properties, or fields. For example, all of them have a code, model, supplier and price. However, most of them have different properties like size, orientation, or material.
My first attempt was using one-to-one tables. My database is formed by a main table (catalog), a type table (which lists all the types of equipments the table has, e.g. control valves, tanks, field instruments, etc), and smaller tables for each type of equipment (the table for control valves has the size and material field; the table for tanks has connections and orientation field; and the table for field instruments has the fields of dial size and connections). All of these small tables are connected to the main table using a one-to-one relationship.
This approached seemed to work, however, trying to create the forms to access the information became a problem.
My question here is if anyone knows a better way to store and access these type of data.
My first attempt was using one-to-one tables. My database is formed by a main table (catalog), a type table (which lists all the types of equipments the table has, e.g. control valves, tanks, field instruments, etc), and smaller tables for each type of equipment (the table for control valves has the size and material field; the table for tanks has connections and orientation field; and the table for field instruments has the fields of dial size and connections). All of these small tables are connected to the main table using a one-to-one relationship.
This approached seemed to work, however, trying to create the forms to access the information became a problem.
My question here is if anyone knows a better way to store and access these type of data.
