Dynamic Design

Question

How to design a table data where we don't know what the groups and subgroups
leveling will be.
Generally in inventory we keep item group, item sub group and if needed, further classification.
But what if we don't know what will be the group and subgroup level.
Can we keep in one table , like item master;

Answer 1

How do they handle the dynamic classification in SAP, Oracle apps or other such products specially for material classification.I suppose thats where the customization part comes in. None of the products can cater your (or end users) needs out-of-the-box unless customized.
I must add though, at least I have not come across such a wonderfully dynamic system :-)
Suppose if i could keep the all the attributes for an item row-wise and not column-wise so i could add any no of attributes, keeping an attribute master.That is really a good idea wherein you will literally prevent any kind of structural changes but bear in mind that was not a production example provided by Gints (as he mentions in his post). In that case, he has given a limited number of options. (IMO) A query against such a structure would mostly be a pivot query as application users are more likely to like the column-wise view than a row wise view of attributes of an item.