Intro: Hi all, my name is Vams, and I am fairly new to postgresql and totally new to mailing lists, so please bare with me. I have used hypersonic sql and mysql, and now I am trying out postgresql... and so far, very impressive. GJ dev team. Problem: For the location table, should I use two columns (ID PK, name) or just one column (name PK)? Should I FK the id column from the location table or should I FK the name column? Does postgresql keep a reference when using a FK (like pointers in C) or does it actually make a copy and store it (like when C passes a copy in a function call)? If its the later, is there a way to reference a value in postgresql (and have it auto-dereference during a query)? Finally, off topic, is there anyway (other than triggers) to keep the user from inserting into the ID column when a sequence already takes care of it? (I don't want someone adding id=5, name='blah' and when the sequence reaches 5, the insert will return error: can't have duplicates.) Thank you all. Situation: Two tables - bookstore and location. Bookstore has info on books and a column for location. So, I use a foreign key for the location column. For Location, there are set of locations that are described by _one_ word (downstairs, <city name>, warehouse, shop ...). Now, the number of locations might change and so might their description word (city name might become a warehouse name...). But each location name will always be unique. Usage: The use for the tables is the end-user GUI will ask the user for book info, but will provide a drop down list for the location input. The drop down list will be filled by a query from table location. I want it so that if the super DB manager ever changes one of the names in the location table, the bookstore table will show the new value instead of the old. Obviously, the GUI will auto update the drop down list. PS, I gave my support stuff at the bottom so that people will read the question first and if they can help, they can choose to read the rest of the post. Again, thx. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
