I have a model about a butcher shop. The entities refer to

"Bestellung" => "Order" (Like order to get more inventory)

"Lieferant" => "Supplier"

"Produkt" => "Product" (specialized in meat and drinks)

and then i have a "Lager" => "storage".

My Question is, where do I have to store the "best-before-date" because there are different dates for the same product. Do I have to store it at the product or in storage, but what is the point of having the storage entity if not storing the best-before-date there? Am I completely overthinking this or where am I wrong? Thanks

I have a model about a butcher shop. The entities refer to

"Bestellung" => "Order" (Like order to get more inventory)

"Lieferant" => "Supplier"

"Produkt" => "Product" (specialized in meat and drinks)

and then i have a "Lager" => "storage".

My Question is, where do I have to store the "best-before-date" because there are different dates for the same product. Do I have to store it at the product or in storage, but what is the point of having the storage entity if not storing the best-before-date there? Am I completely overthinking this or where am I wrong? Thanks

• database
• data-modeling
• entity-relationship
• erd

1 Answer 1

where do I have to store the "best-before-date" because there are different dates for the same product.

Thinking only about meat, and not about ERDs, I can imagine these things. I'll warn you that I know nothing about meat processing.

• A side of beef might be given a "best-before-date" (BBD) when it's first processed. I imagine that might be the same for every side processed on a given date. I imagine it might not be the same.

• The BBD might change depending on how the beef is transported. (Say, refrigerated rail as opposed to refrigerated tractor-trailer.)

• The BBD might change again depending on how the beef is delivered to the butcher. (Large trucks might have a different effect than small trucks.)

• When the butcher processes the beef into cuts, each cut might then have different BBDs. I don't really know how this works in the real world, but I can imagine that a beef tenderloin might have a different BBD than stew meat.

• After it's cut, I imagine storage at the butcher shop might affect BBDs. (Display case vs. walk-in refrigerator vs. walk-in freezer vs. deep freeze.)

• Other things I've yet to imagine go here.

Each of those had different implications for storing BBDs.

Whether any or all of these matter is application-dependent. That means that, between you and the users of StackOverflow, only you know. If this is a real-world task, not just an academic exercise, I'd expect you to ask a "domain expert"--an expert in meat processing at the butcher shop.