This sort of paired value methodology has its uses when you have a many
different clients, each of whom can have a different type of information.
Typically though this paired value method is not used until you reach the
point where all the common information is named and set up as a column in
the database. For example, all clients will have a name, address, phone,
etc. You may have to add named value data for such things as Summer home
phone number, or other unique types of data.

No competent consultant should be telling you to use this exclusively
though. Just the thought of reporting on this type of database gives me
nightmares. You have to retrieve twice for each field that you want to
retrieve on (once to figure out the name of the value, then retrieve the
value itself), then you have to either join back to the table for each
column you want, or get a row for each value and use an identifier to tell
what kind of value you have.

My advice, fire this quack and get someone with a clue. This consultant
doesnt just want to design your database, he wants lifetime employment to go
with it.



Andrew W. Kerber
NAIC
816-783-8583
[Email Address Removed] at first you dont succeed, dont take up skydiving.'

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