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I have a problem with a database design:

I have an EReport. This EReport will have a QAPCategory. User must select a QAPCategory from an set of QAPCategory.

To know which QAPCategory can be selected I have done this design:

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Is this correct? Is this a circular reference?

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So an QAPCategory belonga to one EReport and an EReport has also a relation to one special QAPCategory? – ypercube May 19 '12 at 7:27
What does the FK1 | QAPCategory.eReportID represent? – Jeroen May 19 '12 at 7:58
There is a list of QAPCategory that can be chosen from an EReport (QAPCategory.eReportID), and an EReport must have a QAPCategory (EReport.qapCategoryId). – VansFannel May 19 '12 at 8:13

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

There's no need for both relationships.

Generally speaking, your category table should have one row per category, not per fact table row.

It's OK if multiple EReport rows refer to the same category record, but having a category record per EReport record defeats the purpose of normalizing in the first place.

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