I was wondering if there was an elegant way to model (or implement the business rule)=20 for those situations where the requirement in a parent-child relationship is such=20 that there a quantity restriction on the child table. =20 Consider the following two tables: Table A Table B DB_NAME DB_NAME SCHEMA_NAME SCHEMA_NAME USR_ID -- user (authority) AUTH_INDICATOR -- change authority USR_INDICATOR -- user authority In a nutshell, the rule is that there can be no more than 3 change or user authorities for the given database/schema. A given user can be either or both a change=20 and user authority for a specific database/schema, and can be an authority for multiple database/schemas. So, given the model/business rule, there could be anywhere from 3=20 to 6 child records for a given database/schema. When first presented with this model, my initial thought was to add a shadow table to Table B,=20 using before triggers to implement the business rules, and after triggers to maintain the=20 shadow table.=20 I'm sure this problem has cropped up before and would appreciate knowing how you implemented such a requirement. Thanks. -------------------------------------------- Jeffery D Thomas DBA Thomson Information Services Thomson, Inc. Email: jeff.thomas@xxxxxxxxxxx Indy DBA Master Documentation available at: http://gkmqp.tce.com/tis_dba -------------------------------------------- -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l