----- Original Message -----
From: "James Harvard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <mysql@lists.mysql.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: Are primary keys essential?
Thanks the on & off-list replies, but I obviously didn't explain my
situation very well!
My app is essentially creating summary reports from large amounts of data.
It is _not_ doing the actual data warehousing. It's international trade
data.
The data tables contain foreign keys for stuff like destination country,
trade commodity category etc., but they are _not_ themselves referenced by
any other table. Therefore I have not yet found, nor do I envisage
finding, any use for an arbitrary auto_increment primary key. So why
would/might I need a PK at all?
Well, if this is _just_ summary data, I suppose it's okay to get along
without PKs. But I've never had much to do with the theory and practice of
data warehouses beyond a few very basic concepts so I wouldn't take that to
the bank....
Rhino
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