Re: USMARC and postgresql?

Andrew Sullivan <sullivana(at)bpl(dot)on(dot)ca> writes:
> This is way hard. The reason is simple: MARC allows all of the following:

> 1. Multiple instances of the same field.
> 2. Variable length of field.
> 3. Unpredictable numbers of completed fields.

I would think you could handle this by splitting an entry into multiple
records linked by a common ID value. In barest bones:

itemid int,
fieldtype int,
fieldvalue text

and you do a SELECT ... WHERE itemid = X and fieldtype = Y to retrieve
all the instances of a particular field.

Still, looking around for someone who's already done it seems like a
fine idea ;-)

regards, tom lane