Primary keys

Hi,

I am new to Oracle and would like some advice in creating primary keys. I have created a with the SQL syntax below.

I have a few of questions:

1. When creating primary keys that are just numbers, should I just set the datatype to INTEGER or use LONG (if that works)? Also should I also define the precision?
2. Is there a way to get the key to auto increment when inserting a new record?
3. Should I create an index for this primary key in this case as I will be searching records using the primary key.

Regards,
Robert

• SQL Statements: --------------------- CREATE TABLE student ( student_id INTEGER NOT NULL, firstname CHAR(20) NOT NULL, othernames CHAR(50) NULL, surname CHAR(20) NOT NULL, gender CHAR(1) NOT NULL, dob DATE NOT NULL, nextofkin CHAR(50) NOT NULL, homeaddress_id INTEGER NOT NULL, termaddress_id INTEGER NULL, PRIMARY KEY (student_id)
  );
  

CREATE INDEX student_dob
 ON student (dob);

CREATE INDEX student_gender
 ON student (gender);

CREATE INDEX student_surname
 ON student (surname);

ALTER TABLE student
 ADD (CONSTRAINT addr_stud FOREIGN KEY (homeaddress_id)  REFERENCES address (address_id),
 CONSTRAINT addr_stud2 FOREIGN KEY (termaddress_id)  REFERENCES address (address_id)
);
Received on Sat Mar 08 2003 - 13:41:16 CST