The widespread adoption of Agile development principles seems to be having some positive influence on database design....

A foreign key constraint has to reference a key constraint of the parent table. Since your key is a composite key the foreign key would have to be composite as...

Number of connections is irrelevant. It is the...

pandeharsh (9/12/2009)

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Hi,

No ,Sql Server we do not use cursor and also in sql server we can do without cursor.

But in oracle I see that using cursor is must.

Also,I read here...

Fair points Matt. So to extend the psychological convenience argument, if I find it convenient NOT to have a primary key because in some particular case I don't need to...

What do you mean by that? You have a different understanding of what a "surrogate key" is? Then please share it...

Matt Whitfield (9/19/2009)

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I've got to say, I thoroughly disagree. The important question when designing a business system is 'what are the business rules?'. When designing the database to run that...

An account number is not a surrogate key. It's a business key, i.e. it identifies something in the business domain outside...

Michael Valentine Jones (9/10/2009)

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This discussion seems a bit pointless.

Although SQL Server could be implemented without having PRIMARY KEY, it’s not going to happen without some overwhelming advantage to getting rid...

liebesiech (9/10/2009)

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I don't get it! Talking about relational models, where data is supposed to be denormalized, and not defining a primary key on a table? Of course on paper you...

Jeff Moden (9/9/2009)

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Ummm... I really want my doctor to know the differerence between a transverse colon and a descending colon even though they're both just a part of the same...

So what are my reasons for wanting to abolish the PRIMARY KEY?

One good reason is the enormous amount of needless misinformation and confusion about keys in online articles and even...

Matt Miller (9/4/2009)

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How is primary key not an essential concept in RDBMS'es? They go directly to the definition of a well-formed table, and are the basis by which Codd's...

Lowell (9/4/2009)

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Speed.

the PK determines the actual order of the data, so the any SQL's that use that "PK = somevalue" is very fast...because that PK index is used, and ...

There is of course no such thing as free software. 🙂

PowerDesigner is very powerful:

http://www.sybase.com/products/modelingdevelopment/powerdesigner

Visio is cheap but basic:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/visio/default.aspx