CODEWITHSUNDEEP
terminologydatabase-schema
Sam Storie
Sam Storie

Reputation: 4564

Looking for a general name or term for this particular database table design

I've run into a particular SQL table design and I'm trying to see if there's a common name people use to describe it. The table has a definition like this:

CREATE TABLE [ATTRIBUTES] (
  [Id] [int] NOT NULL,
  [FIELD_1] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_1] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_2] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_2] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_3] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_3] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_4] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_4] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_5] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_5] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_6] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_6] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_7] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_7] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_8] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_8] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_9] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_9] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [FIELD_10] [varchar](30) NULL,
  [VALUE_10] [varchar](30) NULL
)

The idea is to allow a variable number of attributes to be defined (up to a max of 10 in this case), without using a more normalized design.

I'm not looking for the pros/cons of this approach, but does anyone know of a common name or term used to describe this type of database table design?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 52

Answers (2)

anon
anon

Reputation:

This is typically referred to as the Attribute Columns pattern when people aren't busy calling it a pile of crap.

Upvotes: 2

driis
driis

Reputation: 164281

I would call it a (particularly nasty) form of a key-value store.

Upvotes: -1

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