Re: [GUSDEV] synonym table(s)

[Michael S. <msa...@pc...>]

A possible 4th option, especially if the use of synonyms is expected to
grow:

We could use a soft linking table here that would allow *any* item in the
database to be tagged with a synonym.

There are some pros and cons with this approach, namely that it simplifies
the schema a bit, but queries (i.e. joining for synonyms) becomes more
complex.

--Mike


On 9/9/05 8:36 AM, "Deborah Pinney" <pi...@pc...> wrote:

> I would like to propose another table(s) to hold synonym information but
> I'm uncertain what to propose. Therefore, I would like to solicit opinions.
> 
> Immediate motivation:
> Genetic markers often have aliases and, as in many cases, there could be
> more than one alias per marker. Storing multiple aliases as a string
> list in a single attribute of a view or table is clumsy and results in
> inefficient queries. The obvious solution is a separate table for
> aliases which I've called synonyms.
> 
> There are several possible tables that could be proposed:
> 1) The proposed view to hold Genetic Markers is a view of NAFeatureImp
> so we could have a NAFeatureSynonym table with hard links to NAFeature.
> 2) We could have a GeneticMarkerSynonym table dedicated to a
> GeneticMarker view, which would also have hard links to NAFeature.
> 3) We could have a Synonym table with linking tables  - e.g.
> SynonymNAFeature - and the linking table could have hard links to
> Synonym and NAFeature.
> 
> There are others but these capture the general idea. I am partial to the
> third as this Synonym table could be multi-purpose while the linking
> tables could have only hard links.
> 
> Let me add, there are synonym tables in GUS -
> AAGeneSyynonym,GeneSynonym,ProteinSynonym,MoietySynonym,GOSynonym - but
> none that can be used for nafeatures.
> 
>                  
> Debbie
> 
> 
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