What are the tables that start with two letters followed by an underscore? (ma_trans, ac_columns, etc)

Environment:

All Sites, Tables
Oracle B2C Service

Issue:

There are a number of tables with baffling names, such as ac_nodes. What do they relate to?

Resolution:

The table schema is consistently built with trunk tables, each of which may have a number of related branch tables. Each of the branch tables are named in such a manner that they can be identified and related to the trunk table using the following method: the name of the trunk table is abbreviated to a pair of letters followed by an underscore, followed by the remainder of the table name, which may contain further underscores.

For example, in an imaginary set of data, Dragon Families, the trunk table would be called dragon_families, and it might have branch tables such as df_crests, df_family_trees, or df_allegiances.

And so on.

For information on accessing the Data Dictionary, where tables and fields are listed, refer to Answer ID 2611: Accessing the data dictionary.