Identity, Locks and such.

I have a slight dilemma that I am trying to work out and am hoping someone could help me out with it. I have a database design that relies on some MSSQL proprietary elements. I have a quiz that records user information, question info, scores, answers and more. I am using the MSSQL Identity to generate a unique identity for each tuple, which makes the design very much depended on MS/Sybase. I am trying to come up with a design that doesn't rely on any one vender. I am trying to move away from using a numeric sequence as the primary key, but am finding it very hard to make the db flexible in doing this. What I mean by flexible is if any data is changed there is a chance that the changes will have to cascade through the database, which doesn't seem to be very efficient. I had read some posts where people created a table who's job was to track and create new identities for each table, which would require a lock to be placed on this table to prevent a race situation. I also understand that table locking is also vender specific. My question is... has anyone encountered the same problem if so would you mind sharing your solution with me?

Thanks,
Jeff Received on Sat Sep 15 2001 - 00:18:25 CEST