Normalization two types of customers into one table

Question

I am trying to model a sales situation where you can sell to a person or to a business with a contact person. I cannot figure out the proper way to do this.

It seems like 2 tables would be incorrect. But how do I model a Customer table that can be a business or a person? Would I just have a boolean for "business" and an additional "business_name" field that would default to Null. But then I have to do an if/then on the columns and that seems like poor design.

Any advice, direction, or links is appreciated.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

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This SO answer deals specifically with individuals and organizations. This one uses the same technique in a slightly different application.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

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answered Dec 11 '12 at 00:43

Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall'

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 11 '12 at 05:00

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For some detailed explanation of two design alternatives and a related technique, google articles on "Single Table Inheritance", "Class Table Inheritance" and "Shared Primary Key".

There are tags for all three of these here in SO as well.

answered Dec 11 '12 at 05:00

Walter Mitty

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Normalization two types of customers into one table

2 Answers2