RE: No primary keys

Posted in 2001

Parker, Jack — Tue, 9 Jan 2001 10:11:46 -0500 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

An excellent point. One great way to improve DSS performance is to drop indices - that may include PKs. cheers j. > -----Original Message----- > From: cedarsiding@my-deja.com [mailto:cedarsiding@my-deja.com] > Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 6:07 PM > To: informix-list@iiug.org > Subject: Re: No primary keys > > > > > you can't even > > use referencial constraint (foreign keys) between your tables if you > do > > not have primary keys on them. > > Child tables need no primary key, only parent tables do. > > > > That's why it's strongly recommendated that all tables in your > database > > model must have a defined primary key. > > I don't think this is valid generic advice. One should consider > whether one needs something before using it, because it does > have a cost in both disk space and performance. > > Primary keys are often vital in "operational" systems, > i.e. OLTP or ODS (operational data store) applications. > Some DSS applications do not need them, or at least not > on all tables. > > -cs > > > Sent via Deja.com > http://www.deja.com/ >