Help in database set-up

[cwcrogan]

I'm hoping someone can help me out here. I can't seem to wrap my head around this relational concept.

I'm trying to setup a db to record the positions and radios a group of people will have for each day. There are approximately 50 people, each assigned their own radio, but at times they may use another radio because theirs is OOS. Only 10-20 work a given day (shift). There are up to 20 positions to be filled with a minimum of 10 filled every day. Each person could conceivably work in any position.

I need to track which person works in which position and with which radio everyday (or every shift, but that's not important right now).

I know that there should be a persons table with all their attributes - probably to include their radio number. And this is where I get confused. Do I have a table for each position? Or a table for each day (shift)? Or both?

Currently, it's just a flat single tabled file containing days and each person and radio number is filled out and I KNOW this can be simplified. I'm guessing that once a person is entered into a position that the radio number can be looked up and entered automatically and then overridden if a different one is used.

Any help is most appreciated.

Chris

Edited January 31, 2010 by Guest

[efen]

I would probably set this up with a table for each of your entities - people, positions and radios connected to a table of dates (that includes shifts) via a join table.