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

On 2007-03-21, Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:

>>
>> It's not particularly important if I don't get it, however; it's not
>> a concept I care about at all.
>
> How would you insert a new value if you have no literal for it?

If you create a new record in a table (or for that matter a new object) then you get a new candidate identity with no additional steps required.

Unless you know that the data in the table/object can only refer to one item then you can't be sure that your data is attached to the correct identity. Hence it's only a candidate. If you can be sure that there is a 1:1 mapping between identities and keys (for instance if the entity has a natural key) then you can be sure that you have attached the data to the correct identity.  

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