This article will provide a novel approach to database naming standards by ignoring all of the basic generalizations that were foisted upon us in Database 101 class and taking a fresh look at the naming of relational database objects. The article will concentrate on DB2 objects, but the arguments made in the article are just as valid for other relational databases as well. In a relational database management system the primary data store is the table. A table consists of multiple rows, each with a fixed and unchanging number of defined columns. An alternate name that can be used in SQL statements to refer to a table or a view in the same DB2 subsystem.
Synonyms are accessible only by the synonym owner.
An alternate representation of data from one or more table or views. An end user need not know whether he is querying a table, an alias, a synonym, or a view. To the user the results are the same data represented by values in rows and columns. These four objects all logically refer to the same thing in the relational model a representation of data in terms of columns and rows. It is common for most shops to implement different naming conventions for each of these objects.