Re: Negative Numbers in "Identity" or" Autonumber" fields

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, "Tam OShanter" <tam_at_oshanter.com> wrote:
> Any thought's on using negative numbers as surrogate primary keys?
>
> Working with some folks who are of the opinion that using ranges such
> as -1,-2,-3 is appropriate for surrogate keys for code tables.
>
> I'm of the opinion that this is impractical, as, you can't show someone -1
> apples or -1 cars (or whatever you are identifying...).
>
> Not seen this before.

Well, then that's as "impractical" as having to store complex values somewhere (e.g. - multiples of the square root of -1). Just because you can't see SQRT(-1) doesn't mean engineers don't have to use the value...

> I realize, as long as these values meet the criteria of being a
> Primary Key (that is unique and not null) there is no problem
> (technically) with this approach.
>
> Thought on this approach as a matter of form?

Well, using negative numbers has the merit that the values cannot clash with the "all positive" values used in some other field. That would seem somewhat nice.

Unfortunately, it's fairly futile, as you only get to partition the integers once in this particular fashion. There are probably more than 2 sets of ranges that you want to have be disjoint...

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