Re: How to create Meaningful Primary Keys? JUST SAY NO TO MEANINGFUL POINTERS!

From: Pierre Lavignotte (pierre.lavignott..mail.com)
Date: Mon Feb 02 2009 - 09:22:43 EST

  • Next message: Alessio Giovanni Baroni: "Re: How to create Meaningful Primary Keys?"

    > Do poeple agree w/ me here?

    I do !

    All my tables have an autogenerated integer ID. I just need to read it to
    point a specific row but I do NOT define it in Cayenne Modeler because
    (until now) each time you have to re-engineer you DB schema you lose all the
    fields you have manually designed and I don't want these fields to be
    writable.

    Cheers

    Cordialement,
    Pierre Lavignotte
    Ingénieur Conception & Développement
    http://pierre.lavignotte.googlepages.com

    On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 3:15 PM, Eric Lazarus <ericllazaru..ahoo.com> wrote:

    > I can't let this point(er) go buy: JUST SAY NO TO MEANINGFUL POINTERS!
    >
    > There are BIG problems with having meaningful primary keys in general in
    > terms of keeping your program growing and useful long term. When you can
    > avoid it, avoid it... and when YOU are designing the underlying database
    > from scratch, I think you can almost always avoid it. Putting meaning in the
    > pointers is often the reason that a system needs to be re-written or pitched
    > and replaced.
    >
    > A client of mine had to replace an existing application because they had
    > used four budget product codes as part of a pointer field and could no
    > longer represent the number of products in four digits. Cost huge $ to
    > upgrade to SAP...
    >
    > Here is another example, a bad choose made by apple early on, putting data
    > into what amounts to a pointer:
    >
    > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_memory_management
    >
    > So, now it seems that the name and DOB of each person is not going to
    > change. Later it turns out that they do change under some situations and now
    > you have to write big hacks to deal with it.
    >
    > Just say no to meaning in pointers! Keep pointers STUPID! Meaningless bit
    > squences make great pointers in OO programs. That's my view.
    >
    > Of course rules are made to be broken and, when the DB exists already and
    > is used by a big pile of existing code, you likely have no choice but in
    > other situations, try to avoid meaningfulness in pointers.
    >
    > Do poeple agree w/ me here?
    >
    > Eric
    > +1 (917) 589-6579
    >
    > --- On Mon, 2/2/09, Pierre Lavignotte <pierre.lavignott..mail.com> wrote:
    >
    > From: Pierre Lavignotte <pierre.lavignott..mail.com>
    > Subject: Re: How to create Meaningful Primary Keys?
    > To: use..ayenne.apache.org
    > Date: Monday, February 2, 2009, 8:28 AM
    >
    > I don't think his question is about sequence usage but about selecting rows
    > with specific PK values...
    >
    > Cordialement,
    > Pierre Lavignotte
    > Ingénieur Conception & Développement
    > http://pierre.lavignotte.googlepages.com
    >
    >
    > On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Alessio Giovanni Baroni <
    > alessiogiovanni.baron..mail.com> wrote:
    >
    > > It's all ok. But, you are sure that in Entity screen, you are selected
    > > "Custom Sequence" on the "PK Generation Strategy"?
    > > If you do it, AND you add a filed relative to a pk column, you can
    > handling
    > > the keys, without the cayenne's control.
    > >
    > > Hi.
    > >
    > >
    > > 2009/2/2 Νίκος Παράσχου <niparas..mail.com>
    > >
    > > > First of all thank you for your replies.
    > > >
    > > > I have the following table:
    > > >
    > > > Vehicle (
    > > > plate_num CHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    > > > mixed_weight DOUBLE PRECISION NOT NULL,
    > > > type CHAR(30) NOT NULL,
    > > > manufacturer CHAR(20),
    > > > PRIMARY KEY (plate_num)
    > > > )
    > > >
    > > > In Cayenne Modeller I have the dbEntity "vehicle" with all
    > the above
    > > > attributes (plate_num is check as PK). There is also the objEntity
    > > > "Vehicle" with all the above attributes except the PK
    > (plate_num).
    > > >
    > > > I want to select the type of the vehicle with plate_num =
    > "AHZ-4141".
    > > >
    > > > Could you please post some code samples? I have tried so many things
    > > > (with DataObjectUtils too) but still no success.
    > > >
    > > > Thank you,
    > > > Nikos
    > > >
    > > > Στις 02-02-2009, ημέρα Δευ, και ώρα 12:49 +0100,
    > ο/η Pierre Lavignotte
    > > > έγραψε:
    > > > > Hi Nikos,
    > > > >
    > > > > If you need PK for all your tables, then maybe you need to
    > generate
    > > them.
    > > > > But if you only need to use them for a couple tables then you
    > should
    > > look
    > > > at
    > > > > DataObjectUtils class.
    > > > >
    > > > >
    > > > > Cheers,
    > > > > Pierre
    > > > >
    > > > > Cordialement,
    > > > > Pierre Lavignotte
    > > > > Ingénieur Conception & Développement
    > > > > http://pierre.lavignotte.googlepages.com
    > > > >
    > > > >
    > > > > On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Νίκος Παράσχου
    > <niparas..mail.com>
    > > > wrote:
    > > > >
    > > > > > Hello,
    > > > > >
    > > > > > It is the first time I am using cayenne and I have some
    > questions
    > > > > > regarding the primary keys.
    > > > > >
    > > > > > What I want to do is select some rows of a table where the
    > PK has a
    > > > > > specific value. The problem is I can't access the PK. I
    > can specify
    > > > > > qualifiers only with the non-PK columns. The PKs I am using
    > have some
    > > > > > meaning (they are not just numbers) so it is very important
    > to be
    > > able
    > > > > > to use them.
    > > > > >
    > > > > > How can I add the PK to the fields of the Object Entities?
    > > > > >
    > > > > > In this page
    > > > http://cayenne.apache.org/doc20/primary-key-generation.html
    > > > > > the answer is to create a Meaningful Primary Key.
    > > > > >
    > > > > > How can I create Meaningful Primary Keys?
    > > > > >
    > > > > > Are there any security issues when using Meaningful Primary
    > Keys?
    > > > > >
    > > > > > Thank you for your time,
    > > > > > Nikos
    > > > > >
    > > > > >
    > > >
    > > >
    > >
    >
    >
    >
    >



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0.0 : Mon Feb 02 2009 - 09:23:16 EST