Re: [GENERAL] using ID as a key

sounds intriguing. although it still use db, but because it
does not need any special db feature (table-locking is
common), it qualifys as "programmatical" solution.

however, not totally understood yet, let's see:

comparing to file locking (e.g. perl's flock)
1) locking is enforced. safer than flock, which is just cooperative;
however, it need extra db session. seems flock is fast esp. if
each app connection session only need to get one id.
2) it gets a block of id's to the client to reduce traffic to the
"central control".
how about for each app connection session, usually only increase one?
overhead?
3) because 2) may create a lot of holes, to make it better, somehow (the
algorithm) it can return id's to the pool. (then, the id's assigned are
not monotonous) -- unless the client crashes.

is that understanding correct?

also, how many columns in the "central control" table, 2 or 3?
> We need a special table on the database server. They have three
> columns:
>
> FX1 -- holding the next valid id within this session
> FX2 -- holding the session number

######################################################################
On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Marten Feldtmann wrote:

> And here's the description of the "high-low" algorithm for
> programs to create unique id's in a multi-user environement.
>
>
> *** Structure of the identifier ***
>
> Contents of the identifier:
>
> a) session-id
> b) current number within session
> c) class id
>
> These are three numbers. You may create a unique string to get
> the id value into a single column.
>
> In our product we decided to print each number to base 36 (to get well
> defined ascii string. Fill the number a) and b) with special
> characters (e.g. '#') to get strings with lengh of 6.
>
> Then we do the same with c) but the max string length is here 3.
>
> The total size of the id is stored in a column defined via
> char(15). You will define an index on the column.
>
> Very nice would be an index handling something like "right(id,3)",
> because then you may not only query for a specific id value but
> also for all instances of a special class.
>
> *** Structure of the table doing the initial information transfer ***
>
> We need a special table on the database server. They have three columns:
>
> FX1 -- holding the next valid id within this session
> FX2 -- holding the session number
>
> A row can be written as (internal/session). These rows can be
> seen as parameters which can be used from clients to generate unique
> identifier.
>
> *** How does it work ***
>
> In the beginning the session table is empty or holds some session
> informations. The starting client locks the table.
>
> -> If the session-table is empty the client inserts a pair (0/2).
> (session 2, id 0 within this session)
>
> and uses 1 as it's own session number and 0 as the id number.
>
>
> -> if the session-table is not empty is looks for the rows with the
> highest (h) and lowest session number (l).
>
> -> if both numbers are equal it stores a new row into the session
> table the value-pair (0/h+1) and uses the row (h) for further
> work. It removes the row (h) - or actually updates the row (h)
> to become the row (h+1).
>
> -> otherwise the application removes this row with session number
> (l) and uses row (l) for further work.
>
> The application unlocks the session-table.
>
> *** After the initialization phase *
>
> Now the application can create unique id's without doing a query
> against the database (just be increment the id number within the
> session). There may be the case where the application has created
> so many objects that it uses all available numbers within a session:
> ok, then it goesback to the initialization phase and calculates the
> next session row.
>
> If the application terminates is lockes the table and stores it's
> actual values (?,session number) into the database. Other clients
> may use this number in the future.
>
> If the application crashes you may loose some id's -- but this is
> not practically a problem.
>
>
> If something is not clear - please ask.
>
>
> Marten Feldtmann
>
>
>
>
>
> ************
>