Re: Duplicate Keys

[James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Salter, James wrote:
> Hello, has anyone ever handled the following situation:
>
> I have a history file that is not uniquely keyed (changing this would be
> a nightmare).
>
> This file is synchronized with another system and duplicate key errors
> are sometimes received when trying to update records.  This is because
> some history records are created with the same key of item, date, &
> time.
>
> Is there a way via a BEFORE INSERT trigger (or some other process) that
> I can change or prevent the 2nd record from being written if it is a
> duplicate?
>
> I can increment the time on the new record by a fraction of a second as
> long as I can intercept it somehow.

Why not just trap the duplicate key error itself?

Or you could put in some code to check for possible collisions before 
writing the new records.