On Feb 3, 2006, at 7:25 , Merlin Moncure wrote:
There is also the problem that a name can change. People change
names
by deed-poll, and also women can adopt a married name or keep
their old
one. All in all an ID is about the only answer.
I'll take the other side of this issue. The fact that a primary key
is mutable does not make it any less primary. As long as we can can
count on it to be unique, how often identiying info changes has no
bearing on its selection as a p-key from a relational standpoint.
The performance issue has zero meaning in a
conceptual sense however and I think you are trying to grapple things
in conceptual terms.
I definitely agree with you here, Merlin. Mutability is not the issue
at hand. May I ask what strategies you use for determining uniqueness
for people?
Michael Glaesemann
grzm myrealbox com
