Database design: objects with different attributes

Question

I\'m designing a product database where products can have very different attributes depending on their type, but attributes are fixed for each type and types are not managea

Answer 1

You seem to be roughly on the right track, except that you may need to consider the difference between "a product" and what's often called "a stock-keeping unit" (SKU). Is a 25-units box of paper clips (of a certain specific kind) the same "product" as a 50-units box thereof? In terms of a store, or any kind of inventory system, the distinction matters; in some cases, indeed, a simple distinction in packaging of what's otherwise the same amount of the same underlying "product" may give you distinct SKUs to keep track of.

You need to decide where you want to keep track of this issue, if it matters to your application (it may be OK to have the products laid out as you do, and deal with packaging for SKU purposes in other tables, for example, even though for some apps that might be a slight overhead).