"Kaiserdigital": > Why would you want to use two columns when you use could one? Two > columns in each table would clutter your scheme as well as your > procedures.
It's a relational integrity issue. A GUID, by definition, contains two pieces of information: 1. The local primary key 2. The server unique ID As such, RDBMS design principles (the Second Normal Form, I believe, correct me if I'm remebering wrong) mandates that they be kept in two columns. This is a pet peeve of mine, as DB vendors and beginner DBA's today seem to be in a rush to embrase "non-atomic" fields willy-nilly, abandoning 20 years of accumulated RDBMS wisdom. > It doesn't matter if you change the network card. The GUIDs will > still > be unique. The MAC does not make the GUID unique on any given server. > The rest of the GUID generation function accomplishes this task. All > that is accomplished by incorporating the MAC into the GUID is > uniqueness between machines. Makes sense if you have an open-ended network of machines so that a simple numbering sequence won't work. With 3 servers, "1", "2", "3" work just as well, and don't have the 12-byte overhead of a MAC address. -Josh ______AGLIO DATABASE SOLUTIONS___________________________ Josh Berkus Complete information technology [EMAIL PROTECTED] and data management solutions (415) 565-7293 for law firms, small businesses fax 621-2533 and non-profit organizations. San Francisco ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: subscribe and unsubscribe commands go to [EMAIL PROTECTED]