[AccessD] Primary Key Best Practices

 <And I don't give a rat's patuty about relational theory, I care about
what works.>

LOL And how many times have we heard this from clients particularly when
they are justifying bad design or databases that "work" but not really
well. I think we have to grant Jim the point that the more we understand
relational theory and its nuances the better we can make informed
decisions in structuring designs. I am not a slave to relational theory
but if I'm going to design away from dogma I want  my choice to be an
informed one weighing the pros and cons. After all, these programs do
purport to be relational so the more we understand where they succeeed
or fail the better we become as developers. As a power user I began
building "databases" long before I ever heard of relational theory. As I
began learning the theory I understood how flawed and unscalable many of
my constructs were. Today the databases I build don't religiously follow
the gospel according to Codd but are better as I more closely understand
and follow the relational model. Assuming that relational theory, at
least in the abstract, is a logical internally consistent theory that
works and is worth using, it is a "best practice" to implement the
theory SUBJECT TO the constraints imposed by the hardware and software
platforms being used. 

Jim Hale


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