index fields

Hello, can anybody give me some hints, how I best solve the following problem: I am writing a database application in ESQL/C, where more fields for one combined primary key index would be necessary than the database engine supports. (INFORMIX SE 4.0 and 4.1 support only 8 fields for one combined primary key index). Is it better to change the normalized database model or to write more code and "pack" some fields into just one database field? Did anybody have the same problem and found a good solution? Please contact me. Thank you, Klaus -------------------------------------------- Klaus Rehm c0922@rrzc1.rz.uni-regensburg.de --------------------------------------------