Are there any recommended conventions for naming tables and fields in Tadabase? If no positive recommendations, how about negative recommendations – things NOT to do?
In FileMaker, field names are not permitted to start with a non-alpha character (hard prohibition), and many FileMaker developers insist on avoiding spaces in names, using instead either camel case (LastName) or underscores (Last_Name). But that is NOT required and useful (I think) mainly because it helps if you insert field names into SQL expressions.
Tadabase allows me to create field names (and table names) containing spaces, like “Last Name”. And since field names in calc formulas get wrapped in {curly brackets} I can’t see how a space would be a problem. Is there any reason I shouldn’t use spaces?
From version 2 I stopped at FileMaker version 11, a few years ago.
However FM used field names to build relationships, TB uses an identifier that is outside the field name.
I have never had problems with the syntax, I only use it to have visual order of the fields
Field names can be whatever you want, no issues with spaces.
I try to be consistent in syntax if I can. I also like to put the DataTable name in front of the field name if I’m going to have a duplicate field name in another table. For instance {Events: Event Name} and {Schedule: Event Name}
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I try to be consistent in syntax if I can. I also like to put the DataTable name in front of the field name if I’m going to have a duplicate field name in another table. For instance {Events: Event Name} and {Schedule: Event Name}
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Yes, consistency is the most important thing of all.
Thanks for mentioning your solution to the problem of confusion arising from duplicate names in different tables. I’ve been experimenting with different ways to deal with that. For example, if there are two tables, Projects (parent) and Activity (child), I’ve tried naming the connected Projects field in ways that make it absolutely clear that it is, so I’ve tried “Activity>Project” and currently “Project (for this Activity)”. The latter is too wordy. May go back to the former, or perhaps try “Activity.Project”.
