: Re: How can I consistently distinguish among tables, fields, and records in a database? I am describing a database for a scientific publication. The database has many tables, and each table has fields

@Annie587

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I would not use different fonts or type styles for each of the various "kinds of things". I've read technical books that use such techniques, and even when it's a simple thing like "italics for table names and bold for screen labels", I find myself repeatedly asking, "Wait, was it italics for table names or for screen labels? Which was which?" Once you pass two kinds of things, it just gets confusing. It doesn't help.

Personally I routinely capitalize the names of database objects to highlight them and distinguish them from ordinary uses of the word. Like if I have a table of employees, I'll refer to it as "Employee". You might use italics or bold or whatever. But I use the same convention for all database objects, not try to recreate different typographical conventions for tables, records, fields, relationships, indexes, etc.

In general, when you first introduce an object, you should clearly state what it is. Like, "We will create a Trees table to hold ..." Don't just say "We will create trees ..." because then the reader might get confused whether Trees is a table or, say, a set of records. But once you've introduced each object, I don't think it's necessary to constantly repeat what kind of thing it is. Like write, "We will create a Trees table and an Apples table. Each record in Trees is related to one or more records in Apples ... There is a record in Trees for the "big oak in my front yard". But there are no records in Apples for the big oak in my front yard, because it is not an apple tree ..." Etc.

Think of how you refer to people and things in ordinary narrative. You might introduce Bob and say that he is Sally's brother. You wouldn't find it necessary to always refer to him as "Bob, the person who is the brother of Sally". You surely wouldn't write, "Bob, who is the brother of Sally, walked into the store. Then Bob, the brother of Sally, met Fred. Fred called out, 'Hi, Bob' (addressing Sally's brother) ..." etc. Rather, you would describe him once when you first introduced him, and then generally just use his name after that. If you mention him again after not having talked about him for a while, you might repeat the description to remind the reader who he is. If there's a case where it might be ambiguous, like there are two Bobs, you might add the description to make clear which you are referring to. If something about the description is important in a particular context, you might bring it up again to make clear. Like, Bob has known Sally since she was born because he is her brother. If you're saying something that relies on this fact to make sense, you might clarify, "As he was Sally's brother, Bob knew about ..."

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