--- Peter Brawley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> David,
>
> >1. Some species names are shared by more than one
> >mammal. For example, there's a marsupial named
> >Antechinus leo.
>
> >2. Species are more properly cited with the name
> of
> >their parent (genus), so I eventually want my
> species
> >URL's to look like this:
>
> <snip>
>
> As you note, the names aren't guaranteed to be
> unique, or to stay the
> same either, therefore they won't do as primary
> keys, therefore they
> won't do as foreign keys. Also our understanding of
> these taxonomic
> relationships can change even when the names don't,
> and it's considered
> a design error to make it necessary to edit primary
> keys in order to
> update database tables.
>
> One way out is to give every table an
> auto-incrementing integer PK, and
> use those keys, which will never change, to mark
> parent-child relationships.
I already have an auto-incrementing integer PK, but I
haven't used it in my queries, as I thought I'd need
actual names to work with my scripts. But now that you
mention it, I'm probably mistaken, so I'll give it a
try.
Thanks.
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