Review of Behavior and the Geodatabase

You can make features and nonspatial objects in a geodatabase more closely model the real world by creating attribute domains, subtypes, and relationship classes. Listed below are key points you should remember about each:

• Attribute domains define the allowable values for fields in a feature class or nonspatial table. If the features or nonspatial objects have been grouped into subtypes, different attribute domains can be assigned to each of the subtypes.
• There are two types of attribute domains: range and coded value.
• Subtypes provide a way to implement different domains and relationships for features that are otherwise very much alike. Using subtypes instead of creating additional feature classes can improve the performance of a geodatabase. A geodatabase with relatively few feature classes is more efficient than one with many feature classes.
• To create a permanent relationship between two tables in a geodatabase, you must create a relationship class. When you create a relationship class, you define how the two tables are associated by specifying the relationship properties.
• Relationship rules control which objects or subtypes from the origin table can be related to which objects or subtypes in the destination table. Based on the rules you have set up for attribute domains and relationships, you can check for invalid edits to your data and ensure the integrity of your database.