Re:Cyclic dependencies are evil (2013)
by valand on Saturday January 30, 2021 @03:51PM
(#25972861)
In the in-storage form (database), the mappings is synchronized at all times.
Many-to-many relationships in the purest form is described as records of ItemAId/ItemBId pairs. `List<{ account: Account, customer: Customer}>`. There isn't any cyclical relationship in this form.
From `List<{ account: Account, customer: Customer}>` one can derive `Map<Customer, Set<Account>>` and `Map<Account, Set<Customer>>`. Bank can have copy of both mappings and use them as double index, synchronizing both mappings as operations goes by, while at the same synchronizing both mappings to the in-storage form. Or not!
We're talking mostly about data-modelling in a programming language, which applies to the in-memory form. `Customer { accounts: Set<Account> }` and A
`Account { customers: Set<Customer> }` is its in-memory form, a layer of indirection from its actual form, the in-storage `List<{ account: Account, customer: Customer}>`.
If informations of Accounts, Customers, and the many-to-many relationship of both are laid flat in its purest, source-of-truth form, the in-storage database entries, why are people suggesting that there is/should be a cyclical relationship in its representative form, the in-memory objects?
Re:Cyclic dependencies are evil (2013)
by nadagast on Saturday January 30, 2021 @06:13PM
(#25973989)
This is the right answer and I wish more languages would make this dramatically more ergonomic to do. Store the most basic normalized truth and query/derive what you need.
Many-to-many relationships in the purest form is described as records of ItemAId/ItemBId pairs. `List<{ account: Account, customer: Customer}>`. There isn't any cyclical relationship in this form.
From `List<{ account: Account, customer: Customer}>` one can derive `Map<Customer, Set<Account>>` and `Map<Account, Set<Customer>>`. Bank can have copy of both mappings and use them as double index, synchronizing both mappings as operations goes by, while at the same synchronizing both mappings to the in-storage form. Or not!
We're talking mostly about data-modelling in a programming language, which applies to the in-memory form. `Customer { accounts: Set<Account> }` and A `Account { customers: Set<Customer> }` is its in-memory form, a layer of indirection from its actual form, the in-storage `List<{ account: Account, customer: Customer}>`.
If informations of Accounts, Customers, and the many-to-many relationship of both are laid flat in its purest, source-of-truth form, the in-storage database entries, why are people suggesting that there is/should be a cyclical relationship in its representative form, the in-memory objects?