Re: what are keys and surrogates?

From: Cimode <cimode_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:10:09 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <6b9e9fc9-6ae2-4cc6-a98f-3068fa7fe630_at_62g2000hsn.googlegroups.com>


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<<If not, just keep on going with those ancestors. >> Actually there is no guarantee that might work and chances are that it will never work. The idea of using a hierarchical based distinguishing method is just plain stupid as it is inherently unstable. For instance, a combination of filiation elements works only up to the point where the concept of filliation would or could make sense.

How about people who have no idea who their parent are? How do we deal with missing information at key level? How do we identify the first human being ? Is there such thing as a first human being ? Before getting into philosophical, I bite my tongue because I hardly see how a combination of filiation could ever constitute a stable reliable unique identifier...

My two cents...

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Received on Sun Feb 17 2008 - 13:10:09 CET

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