Re: Surrogate Key Semantics

Thanks for the response Eric.

>>>>Rows are not records; fields are not columns; tables are not files.

>Yeah, they are.

>No, they are not. Fields/records/files are physical things, which may or
>may not be used in an implementation supporting the logical structure of
>tables with rows and columns. If you are not aware of the distinction,
>you will not be aware of possible and/or desirable methods of processing
>the data.

I've heard the two terms used interchangeably. It makes sense if we explicitly say that we are talking about physical fields, records, files.

>To put it another way, you have a surrogate key if you have to make it
>up when you insert a row. In a referencing table, you don't get to make
>anything up, you have to use the key of the row in the referenced table.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well.

Thanks again for your time. Received on Mon Nov 14 2005 - 15:51:27 CST