Re: Primary Key Theory Question

> Do you know what "surrogate" means? (I think you're talking about an
> artificial key, not a surrogate key. I could be wrong.)
>

I think I 'know' what "surrogate" means.

Artificial : SSN, ISBN.

Surrogate : a unique key (often extra), mostly used only in internal programming.

But I think I have to explain :
"So using a surrogate key is often the
best solution in 'real' live."

With 'real' live I mean the world programmers and designers live in, as opposed to the 'theory' world as often used in this newgroup.

In theory I think that a lot of what is said in this group is 'true'. But in 'real' live, a lot is not done in this way, because it is not practical.

(In theory 'ssn' should be a good primairy key, in real live some people have
more than one, some 'ssn's are hold by more than on person. So although we still use the 'ssn' to identify a person, internally a surrogate key is added to identify uniquely.)

ben brugman

"Mike Sherrill" <MSherrillnonono_at_compuserve.com> wrote in message news:ko8l60pvdeimee1l2rg53ed0ktb4rt93lf_at_4ax.com...
> On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 16:58:32 +0200, "ben brugman" <ben_at_niethier.nl>
> wrote:
>
> >So using a surrogate key is often the
> >best solution in 'real' live.
>
> Do you know what "surrogate" means? (I think you're talking about an
> artificial key, not a surrogate key. I could be wrong.)
>
> --
> Mike Sherrill
> Information Management Systems
Received on Thu Apr 01 2004 - 10:27:18 CEST