Question

I’m trying to create a rather complex database, my spreadsheet has the following structure:

          Colour   Dashboard 
        ---------------------
Porche  |  Red      1
        |  Green    2
        |           3
        |--------------------
Toyota  |  Blue     2
        |  Red
        |  Orange
        |--------------------
Ferrari |  Green    3
        |  Orange
        |

I’m struggling to understand how I can create linked tables to reflect this structure.

For each “brand” the user will have to pick from some specific “customisation options” for the various “aspects” of the car. I want to be able to define which “customisation options” are available for each “aspect” as not all brands can pick from the same options.

How would I best go about structuring the database for this scenario?

Thanks, C

Answer 1

I would do something like this:

• Cars (Name PK)
• Colors (Name PK)
• Dashboards (Id PK)
• Cars_Colors(Car_Name FK(Cars.Name), Color_Name FK(Colors.Name))
  with composite PK(Car_Name, Color_Name)
• Cars_Dashboards(Car_Name FK(Cars.Name), Dashboard_Id FK(Dashboards.Id))
  with composite PK(Car_Name, Dashboard_Id)