Re: Separate PK in Jxn Tbl?
Date: 28 Jan 2008 23:31:04 GMT
Message-ID: <Xns9A33BC711C594f99a49ed1d0c49c5bbb2_at_64.209.0.89>
Marshall <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com> wrote in news:d7c79554-731c-4daf-a849-2326c0ee8335_at_y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com :
> On Jan 27, 12:39 pm, "David W. Fenton"
> <XXXuse..._at_dfenton.com.invalid> wrote:
>> And it all leaves aside the question of how you know that >> husband/wife/date is always going to be unique. I think that on >> any given day in the US, there are plenty of marriages in which >> those three values will be identical. You could add place. But >> then, in large cities, that might not be enough. So use Postal >> Code in place of place, and that might do the trick, although in >> large cities that might not do it, either.
>
> Huh? You think there are some pairs of people who are getting
> married more than once on the same day?
People with the same names could be getting married on the same day in the same place, yes.
> I mean, even in Hollywood the
> crazy "marriages" usually last at least a few *days*. I'm not sure
> it's
> even technically possible to get married, divorced, and remarried
> to the same person in one day. (Although I am no expert in the
> *bureaucratic* details of marriage.)
My experience in database design says that any choice made on the basis of "well, it's *possible* it could happen, but so unlikely as to be something we can ignore" is bound for failure sooner rather than later.
-- David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/ usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/Received on Tue Jan 29 2008 - 00:31:04 CET