Re: Natural keys vs Aritficial Keys

Walter Mitty wrote:
> "Bob Badour" <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:4a0fb2e3$0$23741$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net...
>
> ...
>
>> That's why warehouses use bin numbers. His problem was the equivalent of a
>> warehouse full of stuff with no intenal subdivision and no way of
>> identifying where in the warehouse things were put.
>>
>> That's a very basic problem and why men invented natural keys long before
>> the first computer was ever built.
>
> This captures the essence of the issue I raised very concisely.
>
> One nitpick. A GPS device gives you a measure of where something is, not a
> key to its location, unless I misunderstand how GPS works.
> Using measures in place of keys is tricky, even though it looks simple at
> first.
>
>

To most people, "natural" means "physical" and ends up being quite unnatural for some purposes.. When inventory or anything else "moves", sometimes "logical" locations are more convenient, allowing the replacement of one row to indicate the transfer or re-assignment of many "things". Received on Mon May 18 2009 - 18:08:28 CEST