Re: Primary Key of a table
Date: 1996/03/31
Message-ID: <4jmjn5$1dn_at_mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>#1/1
It has been my experience that using
'Artificial'/Numeric keys in lieu of 'Natural'
primary keys is more difficult to manage in
your applications.
This may be somewhat wordy, but selection of
Primary Keys does have a major impact not only
on Database storage space, but also Application
development, and query / retrieval methods.
If a user wants to limit rows by a certain
criteria which would be in your Natural primary
key, then the query is simple. However, if you
use Artificial keys and eliminate the Natural
columns in foreign tables, and the user wants
to execute the aforementioned query, then in
your application, you have to first query the
master table to identify all correct primary
key Numbers, THEN requery your detail table
using the Artificial numbers you found.
If anyone has any ideas or knows of
documentation dealing with this issue please
post it to this list.
Michael Kustemann Received on Sun Mar 31 1996 - 00:00:00 CET