On 6/2/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Thu, 01 Jun 2006, Chris Browne wrote:
> Celko is decidedly *NOT* promoting the notion that you should use a
> 100 byte long "natural key."
>
> Jamie's comments of "Orthodox versus Reform" seem reasonably
> appropriate in outlining something of the difference between the
> positions.
Just to be clear, that was all I was trying to do. I probably should
have mentioned that any attempt to use such an attribute as a PK should
be met with a baseball bat or other shillelagh-ish implement, but was
interrupted several times during that email drafting.
> I may not care for doing this; you may not either; a company that
> builds auto parts that they want to sell into the automotive industry
> may care about standardizing their part IDs quite a lot.
This is another important point. In some situations, a rigid data model
can be a godsend to coders. If you happen to sit in such an enviable
position, I would encourage you to take advantage of it. (This doesn't
mean picking bad keys, of course.)
None of this should be taken as bashing Celko - he's a smart man and an
excellent source of advice.
-j
Thanks everyone who replied (and also for the insightful and measured
responses, not every news group is so lucky). I had progressed down
the path of the serial id column but re-reading Celko's book - he
spends some pages railing against "proprietary auto-numbering
features" - I wanted to feel confident I was making the right choice.
Thanks again
Dave
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