Re: Primary Keys

When you say "no natural key" I assume you mean no data that is non-null and unique. How, then, do you propose to get single records, since you (probably) don't want to have to find them by the image data...

Of course, if the table is write-only -- who cares? :-)

Brian Wisniewski wrote:

> I know this violates the most basic data modeling techniques but tell
> me what you think.
>
> I'm working on creating a new database which will be fairly small in
> number of tables ~8 but large in storage size ~4 terabytes with
> millions of records eventually.
>
> The 3 large tables will hold small images along with supporting data
> and the only reason I can see to have a primary key is to have a
> primary key. There is not a natural key for the tables so it would be
> a sequence which would never be selected against. Given the number of
> records all I can see it doing is taking up space, increase the time of
> the imports, generate more redo logs, etc and I can't see the benefits.
>
> There won't be any tables hanging off of these, I won't be using
> snapshots, replication or anything else I can think of that would
> require a PK but the voice 'YOU MUST HAVE A PRIMARY KEY' is resounding
> loudly in my head so I must ask why?
>
> Tell me what you think.
>
> Thanks
>
> - Brian
>
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Received on Thu Feb 01 2001 - 14:44:00 CST