[AccessD] Primary Key Best Practices

John,

This is definitely a  Colbyism.  Basically I make no claim to making any of
this stuff up.  I am a logical person, I do what works most efficiently
whenever I can.  Did I make that up?  Probably not.  It comes from
discussions here on this list where any time you expose the PK to view, some
idiot wants to use it for some purpose that it is not supposed to be used
for (like a "must be in order, with no values missing" number in an
accounting system.  Obviously we can and do delete records all the time so
using the PK for such a rule / purpose guarantees issues whenever the idiot
strikes, thus simply NEVER expose it to view.  

The PK's function (in real life) is exactly and only for use as a pointer
from a child back to the parent.  


John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Bartow
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 11:31 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Primary Key Best Practices

While I agree with you  on the subject matter at hand - I don't recall
seeing this as criteria for a primary key before. Is this a Colbyism or am I
just not quite awake yet?

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby

2) Has no meaning.  From the perspective of the CHILD record, the FK is
nothing more than a pointer back to the parent record.  As such it should be
a behind the scenes, never directly viewed artificial construct designed to
do its job as efficiently as possible.

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