by In most textbooks dealing with relational model there's only
example relationships where referential paths constructs a tree and not a
mesh of relations. Is there some drawbacks in using structure where there
is many conterminous referential paths between tables? It is clear that if
there is cyclic relationships between tables there might be problems, but
how about acyclic relationships?
Example, if we are having following relations (starting with
primary key):
COMPANY(CompanyID, Name)
EMPLOYEE(EmpID, CompanyID, Name)
PROJECT(ProjectID, CompanyID, Name)
PARTICIPATES(EmpID, ProjectID)
Every employee works for company, company has many projects and
employees are participating in many projects within the company. So there
is two paths from company to employee. Could this kind of approach create
some problems with referential integrity or is this right way to do
things?
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