Re: Modifying INSERT

Laconic2 wrote:
> Let's say that a USER (programmed or human) does an INSERT of a new table
> row that duplicates, column for column, the values in an existing row.
>
> Present day DBMS products act differently, depending on whether the table
> has a primary key or not.
>
> If there is no primary key, the INSERT creates a duplicate row.
>
> If there is a primary key, the insert fails.
>
> But how about a different behaviour? What if the DBMS reported success back
> to the writer, but didn't write anything to the table? Essentially, the
> new value of the table is the UNION of the existing table and the inserted
> row?
>
> What would the consequences be of this behaviour?
>
>
Football, as we know at many universities, would cease to exist!

Let me explain. Academically challenged athletes are allowed to register   in more than one "section" of the same weight-lifting course, in which they invariably receive A grades. That enables these "students" to keep their grade point average above low water and stay eligible to continue in the athletics "program".

If your suggestion were to be implemented, their GPA would fall and they would be sent out of the university!

Of course, the registrar's office would be told to prevent that from happening. They would make up dummy section numbers to make the (Otherwise identical) records distinct.

N. Shamsundar
University of Houston Received on Wed Apr 07 2004 - 22:13:45 CEST