At 10:56 AM 3/6/2006, tedd wrote:
As such, if you don't renumber, then the only thing left is to use a
timestamp, I guess.
[/snip]
No, if you have gaps you can still step through sequentially, like 14,
15, 18, 19, 20...
It's the gaps that are the problem.
I have no problem understanding why there are gaps in a dB and dealing
with them. After all I've been juggling memory and bit-twiddling longer
than I want to admit, so I understand "holes" in stuff. But what I am
trying to solve is the simple thing of presenting records to a civilian
such that there are no gaps in his record keeping.
I don't want to have to explain to my client why his dB has gaps in it. I
don't want to listen to him asking why those gaps aren't filled. In fact,
I don't want to raise the issue at all if I can get around it.
One way I found to get around this problem was to simply renumber the "id"
filed in the table -- but, I received considerable advice against that
from this list. I'm still not certain as to why that shouldn't be
considered a "good" solution, but the "feelings" of the group are "don't
do it".
So, I'm still trying to find a simple way around this problem. Either I
renumber the "id" field OR provide an external counter to present to the
user. I don't see any other solutions, does anyone?
Thanks.
tedd
Tedd,
Why does he even have to see gaps? Just present the info, unless he wants
to see the ID.
If wonders why there are gaps, then just tell him that happens when someone
is deleted.
If he wants the gaps "filled" - then keep a table of the "holes" and
recycle those numbers when new members are added. But there will still be
occasional gaps.
But if you renumber the ID field, you have seamless crap, because the
number is absolutely meaningless. Today I'm 2345, tomorrow 2344 because one
member's been deleted, next day I'm 2322 because a lot of people were
deleted but the day after that 2367 because a lot of people signed up.
If the client wants the number of current people, then SELECT Count(*) ...
gets it for you.
Why are we still chasing this thread?
Regards - Miles
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