Jim Dettman
jimdettman at verizon.net
Mon Feb 28 17:21:00 CST 2011
One other thing: keep in mind that the description reflects the code, not the other way around. It's basically a long form of the code. Jim Sent from my iPhone On Feb 28, 2011, at 6:00 PM, "Stuart McLachlan" <stuart at lexacorp.com.pg> wrote: > I see a lot of sense in it having a separate Autonumber PK. This is a classic case of why > you should not use a natural key as your PK. > > What happens when the Description changes and the existing Code is no longer an accurate > short representation of Description? Do you change it throughout all the tables which store it > or do you leave your customer with strange Codes which don't match the description > > (And please don't tell me that you use Relationships with "Cascade Update" turned on.) > > > -- > Stuart > > On 28 Feb 2011 at 17:36, Jim Dettman wrote: > >> Stuart, >> >> <<Do you ever use anything other than longs for PK? If so, why?>> >> >> Occasionally on a lookup table if a client insists on having a short >> code >> along with a description. Then I do this: >> >> LookupCode - Text - PK >> Description - Text >> >> as I don't see any sense in doing this: >> >> LookupID - Autonumber - PK >> Code - Text - CK >> Description - Text >> > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com