This should be a column whose only purpose in life is to uniquely identify the row, and this strictly for the database’s own, internal purposes.

Which is why it makes me uneasy to generate the primary key for new rows outside the database. Sometimes you don't want to use Perl to talk to the database (for example using the database's command line client for administrative tasks is very handy), and it would be a pity if you couldn't insert any rows with reasonable effort without going through your Perl scripts/modules.

I don't know if the databases that you have to work with support generating such sequences, but I for one would feel uneasy about moving such a core component of database integrity out of the database, if it can be avoided by any means.

Perl 6 - links to (nearly) everything that is Perl 6.

In reply to Re: An improved technique for database primary keys by moritz
in thread An alternate technique for database primary keys by locked_user sundialsvc4

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