Share via

Bible Database: one table for all books or different tables

Anonymous
2019-07-08T01:37:46+00:00

Any help would be appreciated.  I am embarking on an ambitions project to put the Bible in a database and then add my pastor's sermons which will reference the different Scriptures.  My question:  should I put the books of the Bible in separate tables or in one table?

Thank you!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

3 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. ScottGem 68,810 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2019-07-08T12:10:07+00:00

    Hi Teri, I'm an independent adviser and will try to help.

    One of the principles of a relational database is to eliminate redundancy. Another is to define information by data in rows and columns, not by object names. So having tables with duplicate structures for each book named for the book, would violate those principles.

    You should have one table for all the books with a field that identifies the book. This will make it easier to search for references that might be in multiple books as well as being proper design.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-08T12:55:26+00:00

    I agree with the others, the text should probably all be in one table. The columns in the table would include Book, Chapter, Verse, text and what ever other associated information there would be.

    I also agree with Duane, there is probably already a database containing the bible text, either paid or free. Typing the whole bible would be a "large" task. And you are likely to make some data entry errors. Instead, do some google searches. Talk to your pastor, there is a chance he knows of one, or knows specific places for you to look and ask for one.

    Here are just a few of the online bible hits I've found in a quick search

    https://bibledatabase.net/

    http://bibledatabase.org/cgi-bin/bib\_search/bible.cgi

    https://bibles.org/pages/api

    You could probably tie into the last one, just create a database with your pastor's information and refer to the text in that last link.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Duane Hookom 26,820 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2019-07-08T02:34:23+00:00

    I would suggest one table vs separate tables for each book. I expect you will have several other tables since there is a hierarchy of testament, book, and chapter. You will probably have a table of people that cross reference verses or chapters.

    This sounds like a lot of work when someone has probably created something similar in the past.

    0 comments