The preferred method is to have a PK and store it in your big table. In
addition to being more "normal" and probably saving a little space, this
gives you the option of changing the corresponding values in one place. So
for instance if your lookup table was "datatypes", and you had entered
"Sting" at first, after several thousand records had been created that
referred to this in the main table, you would be able to correct your
spelling for all of them by changing a single field in the lookup table...
-Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org
[mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Jodi Kanter
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 2:51 PM
To: Postgres Admin List
Subject: [ADMIN] PKs for dictionary tables
I have a database in which there is a particular data tables that has a lot
of dictionary (or lookup) tables hanging off of it. The dictionary tables do
not currently have PKs. They consist merely of a list of values that are
used to create drop down lists in an application.
Would it be more efficient to create PKs for these dictionary tables so that
an integer value is stored in the main data table as opposed to a sting
value?
Is there a preferred database standard?
Thanks
Jodi
_______________________________
Jodi L Kanter
BioInformatics Database Administrator
University of Virginia
(434) 924-2846
jkanter@virginia.edu