Debbie
delam at zyterra.com
Thu Mar 3 15:04:58 CST 2011
This reminds me of a story that may help: A professor in college was not a native English speaker. He took a class when he came to the US as a grad student. Being a class for science majors in English as a second language, physics words figured prominently. The instructor told them the difference between revolving and rotation. Rotation spins on an axis and revolving is moving the whole object around a central point. My professor asked why a revolver was named thus. The instructor (who was English) started muttering about bloody Americans. The moral: it may be proper English, but I will never be understood if I go into a gunshop and ask for a Rotator. Likewise, Jim will never be understood if he insists that an autonuber can never be a PK. Jim, you have met your revolver. Debbie. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 3, 2011, at 1:51 PM, jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote: > LOL. You are allowed to do what you are doing but you are not > allowed to *call it* a primary key. > > Jim hasn't told us what we are supposed to call it, nor has he > informed Microsoft that they are not allowed to call it a PK. > Unfortunately (for Jim) Microsoft and pretty much the rest of the > world *does* call it a PK. As far as I can tell, Jim is tilting at > windmills. > > John W. Colby > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > On 3/3/2011 2:31 PM, Heenan, Lambert wrote: >> I agree 100%.You are describing the reasons why record attribute >> should *not* be used as primary keys, IMHO. That is precisely why >> *my* primary keys have no meaning. They are just autonumbers (like >> John's) and I never have any need to change them. If I need a >> "Serial Number" or "Order Number" or any such meaningful value then >> that will be generated by a function that is "aware" of what's >> happening in the real world (like what was the last order number >> issued). >> >> Lambert :-) >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd- >> bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Dettman >> Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 1:41 PM >> To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' >> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access and SQL Server >> >> Lambert, >> >> <<No you cannot just go in and change it at will. You also have to >> go find all the records in all the tables that use that Autonumber >> value as the foreign key back to the table they are relate to.>> >> >> Sorry if that wasn't obvious, but yes certainly you would. >> However I could do that at any time. >> >> Once it's turned into an attribute though, it takes on meaning. >> You still could at that point change it, but not without changing >> something else. >> It's no longer a matter of simply updating the data. >> >> For example, an asset tag number, which has been applied to all >> assets. >> New admin comes in and now wants all the numbers to be 4 digits >> instead of the current 8. >> >> I can't simply go into the data and decrease the digits without >> going to every asset and re-labeling it. >> >> Jim. >> > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >