Question

Imagine a meta database with a high degree of normalization. It would blow up this input field if I would attempt to describe it here. But imagine, every relationship through the entire database, through all tables, go through one single table called link. It has got these fields: master_class_id, master_attr_id, master_obj_id, class_id2, obj_id2. This table can easily represent all kinds of relationships: 1:1, 1:n, m:n, self:self.

I see the problem that this table is going to get HUUUUGE. Is that bad practice?

Answer 1

In a word, yes, this is a bad idea

Without going into too many details, I would offer the following:

• for a meta database, the link table should be split by (high level) entity : that is, you should have a separate link table for each entity
• another link table is required for the between-entities links

Normally the high-level entities are fairly easy to identify, like Customer.