Re: char() or varchar() for frequently used column

From: Andrew McMillan <andrew(at)catalyst(dot)net(dot)nz>
To: jules(dot)alberts(at)arbodienst-limburg(dot)nl
Cc: pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: char() or varchar() for frequently used column
Date: 2002-10-17 10:58:10
Message-ID: 1034852290.1153.375.camel@kant.mcmillan.net.nz
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On Thu, 2002-10-17 at 22:23, Jules Alberts wrote:
>
> I have considered this. As a matter of fact, that is the way it is in
> our current db but I'm not really happy with it. Theoretically CODE
> should never change and is therefore safe to use as primary key. But
> having an "extra" serial primary key will make the db more flexible
> regarding to unforeseen complications.

Yeah, this happens. Later people want to expire particular codes, or
change their meaning, but not for the existing records that refer to
them...

>From my own experience, I would also say that there is value in being
able to sequence the codes in a non-alphabetic order. I add another
"seq" column to such tables, to allow their ordering to be arbitrarily
adjusted as well.

Cheers,
Andrew.
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