Re: Are primary keys essential?

[Rhino]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Harvard" <james.lists.tech@stripped>
To: <mysql@stripped>
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: Are primary keys essential?


> Thanks the on & off-list replies, but I obviously didn't explain my 
> situation very well!
>
> My app is essentially creating summary reports from large amounts of data. 
> It is _not_ doing the actual data warehousing. It's international trade 
> data.
>
> The data tables contain foreign keys for stuff like destination country, 
> trade commodity category etc., but they are _not_ themselves referenced by 
> any other table. Therefore I have not yet found, nor do I envisage 
> finding, any use for an arbitrary auto_increment primary key. So why 
> would/might I need a PK at all?

Well, if this is _just_ summary data, I suppose it's okay to get along 
without PKs. But I've never had much to do with the theory and practice of 
data warehouses beyond a few very basic concepts so I wouldn't take that to 
the bank....

Rhino





-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.2/208 - Release Date: 20/12/2005