Databasedesign/normaliseringsstruktur skal indeholde AND'er, OR'er, valgfrie elementer og deres relationer

En meget enkel, første tilgang ville være at bruge kun 4 tabeller:

TABLE Course 
( CourseId 
, Title 
, TotalCredits 
, ... other stuff
, PRIMARY KEY (CourseId)
) ;

TABLE Module 
( ModuleId 
, Description 
, Hours
, Credits
, ... other stuff
, PRIMARY KEY (ModuleId)
) ;

og kombinationerne tilladt gennem disse 2:

TABLE Course_Module 
( CourseID                 --- for this course
, ModuleID                 --- this module is allowed (optional or mandatory)
, PRIMARY KEY (CourseID, ModuleId)
, FOREIGN KEY (CourseId) 
    REFERENCES Course (CourseId)
, FOREIGN KEY (ModuleId)
    REFERENCES Module (ModuleId)
) ;

TABLE Course_MandatoryModule 
( CourseID                  --- for this course
, ModuleID                  --- this module is mandatory
, PRIMARY KEY (CourseID, ModuleId)
, FOREIGN KEY (CourseID, ModuleId)
    REFERENCES Course_Module (CourseID, ModuleId)
) ;

Hvis nu dine tilladte kombinationer af moduler og kurser er mere komplicerede, som din beskrivelse antyder, i stedet for Course_Module og Course_MandatoryModule tabeller kan du definere en kompleks hierarkisk model:

Kurser:

TABLE Course                        --- same as previous model
( CourseId 
, Title 
, TotalCredits 
, ... other stuff
, PRIMARY KEY (CourseId)
) ;

Moduler og grupper af (moduler):

TABLE ModuleEntity                  --- the supertype for both
( ModuleEntityId                    --- modules and group of modules
, PRIMARY KEY (ModuleEntityId)
) ;

TABLE Module                        --- subtype
( ModuleId 
, Description 
, Hours
, Credits
, ... other stuff
, PRIMARY KEY (ModuleId)
, FOREIGN KEY (ModuleId) 
    REFERENCES ModuleEntity (ModuleEntityId)
) ;

TABLE ModuleGroup                  --- group of modules
( ModuleGroupId                    --- subtype of the supertype (entity)
, GroupDescription        
, PRIMARY KEY (ModuleGroupId)
, FOREIGN KEY (ModuleGroupId) 
    REFERENCES ModuleEntity (ModuleEntityId)
) ;

og relation (modulet tilhører gruppen):

TABLE Module_in_Group  
( ModuleEntityId               --- this module or group
, ModuleGroupId                --- is in this group
, PRIMARY KEY (ModuleEntityId, ModuleGroupID)
, FOREIGN KEY (ModuleEntityId)
    REFERENCES ModuleEntity (ModuleEntityId)
, FOREIGN KEY (ModuleGroupId)
    REFERENCES ModuleGroup (ModuleGroupId)
) ;

og (endelig) kursus kan have gruppe af moduler:

TABLE Course_ModuleGroup
( CourseId                 --- for this course
, ModuleGroupId            --- this module group is allowed
, PRIMARY KEY (CourseID, ModuleGroupId)
, FOREIGN KEY (CourseId) 
    REFERENCES Course (CourseId)
, FOREIGN KEY (ModuleGroupId)
    REFERENCES ModuleGroup (ModuleGroupId)
) ;