Thoughts and Ideas On a Simple Purchase Database

[Stang02GT]

Hello,

I would just like to get your thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how I should go about createing a VERY SIMPLE purchasing system. A friend has asked me help him develop a simple purchasing database.

Just off the top of my head this is what i have come up with for the table lay out.

Tables = Bold Text

Customer
Name
Address
Phone Number
E-Mail Address
Credit Card Number

Orders
Order Number
Product Number
Customer Name
Customer Address
Customer Phone
Cumster Credit Card Number

Products
Name
Manufacture
Model Number
Price
Quantity


Is there anything else that i would need. Is there a better way to arrange the tables and feilds within them? I am open to any thoughts/ideas/and suggestions.


thank you in advance

[Rabbit]

Customer
CustomerID; PK
Name
Address
Phone Number
E-Mail Address
Credit Card Number

Orders
Order Number; PK
Product Number; FK
CustomerID; FK
OrderDate
QuantityOrdered
PriceAtPointInTime

Products
Product Number; PK
Name
Manufacturer
Model Number
Price
QuantityInStock

[Scott Price]

You've done a good job of starting the process :-)

Normally, however, you would include in your Customers table a field with unique id's named something like CustomerID. Then instead of replicating the Customer Name, etc in your Orders table, you would simply include this CustomerID field. This is called a Primary Key/Foreign Key (Primary Key is in the main table, Foreign Key refers to another table's Primary Key that is used in a second table to reference the data between the tables).

Have a look through this: Database Normalisation and Table Structures as well.

Good luck, and ask whatever questions you need!

Regards,
Scott