On Tue, Feb 4, 2025 at 9:59 AM David G. Johnston <david.g.johnston@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:On Tue, Feb 4, 2025 at 9:41 AM David G. Johnston <david.g.johnston@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Rich Shepard <rshepard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Should lookup tables have a numeric FK column as well as the description column?
If so, how should I add an FK to the two lookup tables in my database?
Most do (have a surrogate PK) since it removes cascading updatesHow does a synthetic PK "remove cascading updates"? Doesn't the decision on whether or not to cascade update depend on the ON UPDATE CASCADE clause of the FK definition?People don’t change synthetic PKs so updates never have to happen on the FK side. Labels do get changed, in which case you have to update the FK label side.
That's the argument between a synthetic PK and a natural PK. (Everywhere I've seen natural PK used -- that was 25 years ago -- you didn't use the whole text of the description of the PK, you used a code, like 'HRLY' for hourly wage employees and 'SLRY' for salaried employees. Then, HRLY or SLRY would go in the t_employee table income_type VARCHAR(4) column, referencing a lookup table.
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Don't boil me, I'm still alive.
<Redacted> lobster!
