Hi folks,
I would like to hear your opinion on the following problem/design.

Imagine there is a list of so called "categories".
Could be some table like (but could also be something completely
different)

CREATE TABLE CATEGORY (
ID INTEGER,
NAME VARCHAR(32));

Furthermore there is a list of "attributes" like

CREATE TABLE ATTRIBUTE (
ID INTEGER,
NAME VARCHAR(32));

Now I would like to store "instances" of categories, which have
specific values for each attribute.

Example: Imagine a category called "POSITION". Now I would like to
create "an instance" of "POSITION" with
the values "HEIKO" for an attribute "FIRSTNAME" and "PC1" for an
attribute "COMPUTERNAME".

For each such instance of a category I would like to store a hierarchy
of keys and values. But that should
not be the problem here. I just need to know some kind of primary key
(ID ?) of the category instance that stands
for a category with the specific values for each attribute.

Any thoughts?

--Heiko