Re: Need for primary keys

Most of us believe strongly in maximum use of Declared Referential 
Integrity, so I think I would be joined by many in saying that your 
application is severly flawed and very probably contains trash data. 
However, some apps (a couple of our very own COTS systems here, actually) 
use Unique Indexes, but few declared Primary or Unique Keys.  Unique 
Indexes are better than no uniqueness constraints whatsoever, but they 
don't support the necessary Foreign Key constraints on "child" tables.

Unless your management is more enlightened than most, you'll probably need 
to present a business case of the extra costs incurred from problems the 
unconstrained dirty data causes.  You can't just say "Sixty percent of our 
tables have no Primary Keys."  They'll just say "So what?"  Help them 
understand the business-related problems caused by bad data.  If you can 
relate it to extra labor to correct mistakes, lost sales, etc., then 
you'll get their attention.

Good luck!

Jack C. Applewhite - Database Administrator
Austin (Texas) Independent School District
512.414.9715 (wk)  /  512.935.5929 (pager)

 I'll just sit back in the shade while everyone gets laid.
 That's what I call Intelligent Design. -- God ("Origin of Species": Chris 
Smither)




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Subject
Need for primary keys




I just started at a new company about 4 months ago and I noticed that 
about 4800 of the 7900 tables ( 60% ) do not have primary keys. 

Is this a problem that I should bring to management or is it more based on 
the business/application needs? 


Thanks

Brian Lock
DBA - East Campus
ex: 22341

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