On Sunday 15 May 2005 20:31, Dan Bolser wrote: > You must mean a multipart primary key with three parts :) > > or "multiple-column indexes" > > That is what I would do (use a multiple-column index (primary key) - its > kinda based on opinion, but I think you should let the real data be the > primary key where appropriate, and avoid artificial 'auto_increment' > unless they are specifically useful or necessary in your situation. > > I.e build the database around the data, not the other way round :) > > That is just my design preference though. > > Not sure about performance problems, but you get two 'indexes' for free > with one multipart primary key with three parts (so the order of the > parts is significant (depending on your application)). >
I would advocate quite the opposite. The data is the data: primary/foreign keys are data about the database. You should always separate the two. For instance, the foreign key values used in a junction table, used to manage many-to-many relationships, are _simply_ foreign keys; the need for their presence in that particular table has more to do with normalisation and good database design than anything about the actual data in the real world. By all means, build the database AROUND the data, but don't actually USE the data to build the database. You can never really guarantee the uniqueness (or availability) of the data that you select for your primary key when you use _real_ data. A classic example, is where someone is using National Insurance numbers for employees an Employee database as the primary key for each employee - what happens if you suddenly start hiring foreign contractors, where no such data exists? Do you start inventing false data, just to satisfy your need for a foreign key? If you'd used auto-increment fields, the problem wouldn't arise. Furthermore, auto_increments are just integers: there is very little overhead involved in handling them. Real data is usually either more complex, or is apt to become so at some point in the future. Daniel Walker -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
