Re: pro- foreign key propaganda?

"paul c" <toledobysea_at_ac.ooyah> wrote in message news:9eYYj.285346$pM4.76072_at_pd7urf1no...
> Brian Selzer wrote:
> ...
>> I don't think the choice has anything to do with the desired or intended
>> interpretation. The information contained within a database is the same
>> regardless of which candidate key is designated to be the primrary key.
>> As far as the logic is concerned, the choice is completely arbitrary.
>> That's not to say that there may not be a sound reason to choose one over
>> another: just that that reason is a matter of implementation, not
>> interpretation.
>> ...
>
> Saying that a choice is arbitrary yet not psychological is the most
> magical kind of mysticism.

I didn't say that it is not necessarily psychological. I said that it had nothing to do with the desired or intended interpretation. What does psychology have to do with the fact that sometimes you pull the middle beer from the left hand side of a fresh six-pack and sometimes the nearest from the right hand side? Are we supposed to read something into the fact that once in a while you pull the beer furthest away from you on the right-hand side? The beer closest to you should taste just as good as the one furthest away. The choice of which candidate key is to be primary has as much to do with the intended interpretation as the choice of which beer you pull first out of a fresh six-pack has on how good it tastes. Received on Wed May 21 2008 - 19:41:03 CEST