RE: DDL Files - Tables and keys

[Doug Palme <DPalme@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

   This is a whole new area for us, so please do not take my comments as
   being anything written in stone.  As for the DBA, we don't have one and
   they won't be adding one.  So it'll be up to the programming staff to
   decide when to add them and when not to.  

   From:    "Walden H. Leverich" <WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>                    
   To:      "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
   Date:    08/14/2008 01:47 PM                                               
   Subject: RE: DDL Files - Tables and keys                                   

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   > unless there is a specific reason to use a PRIMARY key, which I
   >  believe is the only key you can add to a table....correct?  

   Why would you not want a PK? While I believe you can do a FK relation on
   a unique index, generally speaking they're on the PK. I can't imagine
   any reason you'd want to define a table that didn't have a unique
   primary key. If there's not one in the business domain add a surrogate
   key (personally I'd use them all the time, but that's a different
   discussion)

   If you're doing all your IO via SQL don't let the programmers dictate
   indexes either, that's the domain of a DBA. Now, programmers tend to be
   intelligent, and they're free to _recommend_ a new index, but their SQL
   will work w/out any indexes (just not quickly) so they never _need_ an
   index. This is especially true if they want an index because they want
   the data in a given order. An index on lastname may be of no use even if
   the order by is lastname. SQL may decide it's faster to just sort the
   result set.

   -Walden

   --
   Walden H Leverich III
   Tech Software
   (516) 627-3800 x3051
   WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   http://www.TechSoftInc.com

   Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
   (Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)
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