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by __afk__ 2259 days ago
Self-describing?

Maybe to someone who could make sense of the DDL and read the language the label col names are written in. And understand all the implicit units, rules around nulls/empties, and presence of magic strings (SSN, SKU) and special numbers (-1) and on and on. For that you need something like RDF and a proper data model.
2 comments
Ari_Ugwu 2258 days ago
Aren't you conflating the lexicon of data management with specific implementations of a relational database management system (RDBMS)?

Sorry, but your response sounds snarky and reminds me of all the ego hurdles I had to overcome when leaving/loving databases and set theory. Please remember that your comment could be someone's first introduction or step early step in learning.

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bambambazooka 2259 days ago
If you use Oracle, PostgreSQL or MySQL (those are the ones I'm familliar) you can always query the data dictionary and see how your tables relate. For me that is self-describing.
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