Re: Surrogate Key vs Production Key

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:47:59 -0700
Message-ID: <1098424026.958851@yasure>

Galen Boyer wrote:

> On 21 Oct 2004, ed.prochak_at_magicinterface.com wrote:
>

>>wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au (Noons) wrote in message
>>
>>>>Why because that is not relationship between the Surrogate
>>>>key value and the data it is supposed to connect. It is
>>>>often just a value
>>>
>>>This is where your examples and arguments are completely
>>>wrong.  If you do not establish a referential integrity
>>>constraint between ANY two PK and FK keys (natural or not is
>>>COMPLETELY immaterial), then you WILL have the potential for
>>>wrong data.

>
>
> So, what if the multiple sources of your data have different
> natural keys?

Once again ... a natural key in one system is not necessarily a natural key in another system. If it doesn't uniquely define a record it isn't a key, of any kind, by definition.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

Received on Fri Oct 22 2004 - 00:47:59 CDT