Re: Is a primary key always desired?

"Niall Litchfield" <niall.litchfield_at_dial.pipex.com> wrote:

>"Randy Harris" <randy_at_SpamFree.com> wrote in message
>news:mzlfb.5646$Hd6.3652502_at_newssvr28.news.prodigy.com...
>> I'm sure this is another dumb question, your patience is appreciated.
>>
>> Should every table in an Oracle database have a Primary Key? What about a
>> very small table that is used for a very short list of values?
>
>Is it desirable - absolutely, even lookup tables shouldn't have duplicates
>or miss required data. Is it practice, sadly not.

In general I agree with all the comments to this posting, except in Data Warehousing appications..We use ( and need) denormalized tables - with Unique indexes ( not Primary keys - some records have NULLs - and that is fine under our business rules ) used where needed for rapid access but, in general, our loading routines handle the data validity tests . For OLTP, maintaining data integrity is paramount - in DSS from a warehouse, rapid access and appropriate denormalization is the guiding principle..IMHO Received on Mon Oct 06 2003 - 09:05:35 CDT