Re: Artificial Primary keys

From: Jan Emil Larsen <jel_at_g-it.dk>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 22:57:02 +0100
Message-ID: <3c55c903$0$14074$edfadb0f_at_dspool01.news.tele.dk>


"Ben Clifford" <benc-news_at_hawaga.org.uk> skrev i en meddelelse news:3C55B35D.E662D2C7_at_hawaga.org.uk...
> Jan Emil Larsen wrote:
>
> > In theory, your "time and place of birth"-key is indeed immutable and
>
> > I practice, if "time and place" by an error was recorded wrongly, you
would
> > have to change the key - not because then person became another person,
but
> > due to an error. Errors happens.
>
> That's because what you are actually using as the key is *not* the "time
> and place of birth", it is "a person's attempt to record the time and
> place of birth".
>
> That's a problem, I suppose, for *any* key that has to be input rather
> than generated internally.

The SIZE of the problem is however quite different from one case to another. A SSN is less error prone than "time, longitude, lattitude". In any case: nothing speaks against a surrogate key .... Received on Mon Jan 28 2002 - 22:57:02 CET

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