Naming convention of Table and Fields name.

Question

Hello All, I need to create the database of my application, so I am a bit confused about naming convention for database tables name and field names. Requirments: Need to create three types of tables in the database. 1. Master tables. 2. Transaction tables. 3. Enum/lookup tables. now, what naming convention, I need to apply here to differentiate b/w all of them. Like (M or M_ or Mas represent the master) MClient or M_Client or MasClient. and same way for Lookup/Enum tables LAddressType or EnAddressType. please share some suggestions over it. Thanks.

Nitin Sontakke · Answer

Personally, I don't prefix anything to differentiat between master and client. I put tbl to all tables. Try not to put underscores. Instead just use camel case as in tblClient. If you do decide to prefix do not use mas, to be honest I have NEVER seen anyone using it. Use mst instead for master. And may be trn for transactions. Again, never seen anyone differentiating as Enums. It is just programming construct support by language. Enums are in strictly technical sense, masters, so please treat them as such. In fact, when you put them in table, they don't remain enums they become master only. For column names, do no unnecessaryly make names short, for example, fn_name, first_nm, etc. Have proper names, like first_name, etc. There were times when we were restricted to have column name in max 8 chars, not any more, so use it. You can also choose to have camel case for column names such as FirstName. Whatever method you choose, please be consistent.

Shahriar Nikkhah · Answer

As long as you have a standard that you stick to its always right. ever if all of your naming convention are wrong and strange as long as you stick to them you have a standard that its correct In the past ten years the naming convention has changed alot if you look at MS databases you dont see the "tbl" prefix or "vw" you will see that they are more working with SQL schemas and etc... then came a time that they used a "fct" and "dim" as a prefix of the tables now days none of the tables have any prefix they are grouped by schema just have an standard (Nitin I respect your approch and to my eyes they are perfect and right)