Re: is there an equivavlent to auto_increment in ingres ?

>> auto incrementing primary keys .<<

A contradiction in terms! You never learned RDBMS, did you? Back to
foundations!

A key is a subset of attributes that are unique to each instance of a
kind of entity model by a table. A auto-increment is an exposed
physical locator based on the internal state of the hardware at the
time of insertion. Like a pointer change in a 1970's navigational
database, only you can see it and have to maintain it yourself.

Let me go ahead one more step and play Q&A with the direction I think
you are going:

Q: Couldn't a compound key become very long?

A1: So what? This is the 21-s's century and we have much better
computers than we did in the 1950's when key size was a real physical
issue. What is funny to me is the number of idiots who replace a
natural two or three integer compound key with a huge GUID that no
human being or other system can possibly understand because they think
it will be "faster and easy" to program.

A2: This is an implementation problem that the SQL engine can handle.
For example, Teradata is an SQL designed for VLDB apps that uses
hashing instead of B-tree or other indexes. They guarantee that no
search requires more than two probes, no matter how large the database.
A tree index requires more and more probes as the size of the database
increases.

A3: A long key is not always a bad thing for performance. For example,
if I use (city, state) as my key, I get a free index on just (city) in
a tree index. Longer keys hash better, etc.

You are faking a sequential file's positional record number to find the
physical storage location? Sure, if I want to lose all the advantages
of an abstract data model, SQL set oriented programming, carry extra
data and destroy the portability of code!

More and more programmers who have absolutely no database training are
being told to design a database. They are using GUIDs, IDENTITY, ROWID
and other proprietary auto-numbering "features" in SQL products to
imitate either a record number (sequential file system mindset) or OID
(OO mindset) since they don't know anything else.

Experienced database designers tend toward intelligent keys they find
in industry standard codes, such as UPC, VIN, GTIN, ISBN, etc. They
know that they need to verify the data against the reality they are
modeling. A trusted external source is a good thing to have.

The auto-increment column is a holdover from the early programming
languages which were very close to the hardware. For example, the
fields (not columns; big difference) in a COBOL or FORTRAN program were
assumed to be physically located in main storage in the order they were
declared in the program. The languages have constructs using that
model -- logical and physical implementations are practically one! The
data has meaning BECAUSE of the program reading it (i.e. the same bits
could be a character in one program and be an integer in another)

The early SQLs were based on existing file systems. The data was kept
in physically contiguous disk pages, in physically contiguous rows,
made up of physically contiguous columns. In short, just like a deck
of punch cards or a magnetic tape. Most programmer still carry that
mental model, which is why I keep doing that rant about file vs. table,
row vs. record and column vs. field.

But physically contiguous storage is only one way of building a
relational database and it is not the best one. The basic idea of a
relational database is that user is not supposed to know *how* or
*where* things are stored at all, much less write code that depends on
the particular physical representation in a particular release of a
particular product on particular hardware at a particular time.

One of the biggest errors is the IDENTITY column (actually property,
not a column at all) in the Sybase/SQL Server family. People actually
program with this "feature" and even use it as the primary key for the
table! Now, let's go into painful details as to why this thing is bad.


The first practical consideration is that IDENTITY is proprietary and
non-portable, so you know that you will have maintenance problems when
you change releases or port your system to other products. Newbies
actually think they will never port code! Perhaps they only work for
companies that are failing and will be gone. Perhaps their code is
such crap nobody else want their application.

But let's look at the logical problems. First try to create a table
with two columns and try to make them both IDENTITY. If you cannot
declare more than one column to be of a certain data type, then that
thing is not a datatype at all, by definition. It is a property which
belongs to the PHYSICAL table, not the LOGICAL data in the table.

Next, create a table with one column and make it an IDENTITY. Now try
to insert, update and delete different numbers from it. If you cannot
insert, update and delete rows from a table, then it is not a table by
definition.

Finally create a simple table with one IDENTITY and a few other
columns. Use a few statements like

INSERT INTO Foobar (a, b, c) VALUES ('a1', 'b1', 'c1');
INSERT INTO Foobar (a, b, c) VALUES ('a2', 'b2', 'c2');
INSERT INTO Foobar (a, b, c) VALUES ('a3', 'b3', 'c3');

To put a few rows into the table and notice that the IDENTITY
sequentially numbered them in the order they were presented. If you
delete a row, the gap in the sequence is not filled in and the sequence
continues from the highest number that has ever been used in that
column in that particular table. This is how we did record numbers in
pre-allocated sequential files in the 1950's, by the way. A utility
program would then "pack" or "compress" the records that were flagged
as deleted or unused to move the empty space to the physical end of the
physical file. IDENTITY leaves the gaps.

But now use a statement with a query expression in it, like this:

INSERT INTO Foobar (a, b, c)
SELECT x, y, z
FROM Floob;

Since a query result is a table, and a table is a set which has no
ordering, what should the IDENTITY numbers be? The entire, whole,
completed set is presented to Foobar all at once, not a row at a time.
There are (n!) ways to number (n) rows, so which one do you pick? The
answer has been to use whatever the *physical* order of the result set
happened to be. That non-relational phrase "physical order" again!

But it is actually worse than that. If the same query is executed
again, but with new statistics or after an index has been dropped or
added, the new execution plan could bring the result set back in a
different physical order.

Can you explain from a logical model why the same rows in the second
query get different IDENTITY numbers? In the relational model, they
should be treated the same if all the values of all the attributes are
identical.

Using IDENTITY as a primary key is a sign that there is no data model,
only an imitation of a sequential file system. Since this "magic,
all-purpose, one-size-fits-all" pseudo-identifier exists only as a
result of the physical state of a particular piece of hardware at a
particular time as read by the current release of a particular database
product, how do you verify that an entity has such a number in the
reality you are modeling?

You will see newbies who design tables like this:

CREATE Drivers
(driver_id IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
ssn CHAR(9) NOT NULL REFERENCES Personnel(ssn),
vin CHAR(17) NOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool(vin));

Now input data and submit the same row a thousand times, a million
times. Your data integrity is trashed. The natural key was this:

CREATE Drivers
(ssn CHAR(9) NOT NULL REFERENCES Personnel(ssn),
vin CHAR(17) NOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool(vin),
PRIMARY KEY (ssn, vin));

To demonstrate, here is a typical newbie schema -- you will them all
over the news groups. I call them "idiots" because they always name
the IDENTITY property column "id" in EVERY table. They don't
understand basic data modeling -- one and only name for an attribute.
About half the time they don't use any DRI, but let's show it.

CREATE TABLE MotorPool
(id IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
ssn CHAR(9) NOT NULL REFERENCES Personnel(snn),
vin CHAR(17) NOT NULL REFERENCES Vehicle(vin));

CREATE TABLE Personnel
(id IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
ssn CHAR(9) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
..);

CREATE TABLE Vehicles
(id IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
vin CHAR(17) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
...);

Now change a row in Personnel:

UPDATE Personnel
SET ssn = '666666666'
WHERE id = 1;

or

UPDATE Personnel
SET ssn = '666666666'
WHERE ssn = '999999999';

or
BEGIN ATOMIC
DELETE FROM Personnel WHERE id = 1;
INSERT INTO Personnel VALUES ('666666666');
END;

What happened in Motorpool? There is no logical relationship between
the real key and the exposed physical locator, not is there any way to
make one.

Another cute way to destroy data integrity:

BEGIN ATOMIC
DELETE FROM Foobar
WHERE id = <<some row>>;
INSERT INTO Foobar
VALUES ( <<recreate deleted row>>)
END;

Logically this should do nothing, but since IDENTITY has gaps, it
trashes the data.

Now you are REALLY thinking about relations and keys instead of 1950's
sequential record numbering. Adding an IDENTITY column to either of
these tables as a candidate key would be dangerously redundant; one
query uses the IDENTITY and another uses the real key, and like a man
with two watches, you are never sure what time it is.

Finally, an appeal to authority, with a quote from Dr. Codd:
"..Database users may cause the system to generate or delete a
surrogate, but they have no control over its value, nor is its value
ever displayed to them ..."(Dr. Codd in ACM TODS, pp 409-410) and Codd,
E. (1979), Extending the database relational model to capture more
meaning. ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 4(4). pp. 397-434.

This means that a surrogate ought to act like an index; created by the
user, managed by the system and NEVER seen by a user. That means never
used in queries, DRI or anything else that a user does.

Codd also wrote the following:

"There are three difficulties in employing user-controlled keys as
permanent surrogates for entities.

(1) The actual values of user-controlled keys are determined by users
and must therefore be subject to change by them (e.g. if two companies
merge, the two employee databases might be combined with the result
that some or all of the serial numbers might be changed.).

(2) Two relations may have user-controlled keys defined on distinct
domains (e.g. one uses social security, while the other uses employee
serial numbers) and yet the entities denoted are the same.

(3) It may be necessary to carry information about an entity either
before it has been assigned a user-controlled key value or after it has
ceased to have one (e.g. and applicant for a job and a retiree).

These difficulties have the important consequence that an equi-join on
common key values may not yield the same result as a join on common
entities. A solution - proposed in part [4] and more fully in [14] -
is to introduce entity domains which contain system-assigned
surrogates. Database users may cause the system to generate or delete
a surrogate, but they have no control over its value, nor is its value
ever displayed to them....." (Codd in ACM TODS, pp 409-410).

References

Codd, E. (1979), Extending the database relational model to capture
more meaning. ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 4(4). pp. 397-434

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: problem using identity column as primary key
    ... >> I am thinking of creating an identity column to use it as primary key ... More and more programmers who have absolutely no database training are ... the gap in the sequence is not filled in and the sequence ... vin CHARNOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool); ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)
  • Re: Table Design Question
    ... > requires more than two probes, no matter how large the database. ... > acceptable (in the relational model) to have an Identity attribute to ... the gap in the sequence is not filled in and the sequence ... > vin CHARNOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool); ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)
  • Re: table structure question
    ... no matter how large the database. ... acceptable (in the relational model) to have an Identity attribute to ... the gap in the sequence is not filled in and the sequence ... vin CHARNOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool); ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)
  • Re: why use 4nf?
    ... no matter how large the database. ... acceptable (in the relational model) to have an Identity attribute to ... the gap in the sequence is not filled in and the sequence ... vin CHARNOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool); ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)
  • Re: Primary Key Dilemma
    ... no matter how large the database. ... acceptable (in the relational model) to have an IDENTITY attribute to ... the gap in the sequence is not filled in and the sequence ... vin CHARNOT NULL REFERENCES Motorpool); ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)
Loading