Re: Postgres-R: primary key patches

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org>
Cc: Markus Wanner <markus(at)bluegap(dot)ch>, chris <cbbrowne(at)ca(dot)afilias(dot)info>, pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Postgres-R: primary key patches
Date: 2008-07-18 15:06:14
Message-ID: 22022.1216393574@sss.pgh.pa.us
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David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> writes:
> On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 03:04:08PM +0200, Markus Schiltknecht wrote:
>> But what do we have primary keys for, in the first place?

> We have them because people are used to thinking in terms of a
> "PRIMARY KEY," not because that concept is actually distinguishable
> from a non-partial UNIQUE NOT NULL constraint.

No, we have them because the SQL standard actually assigns a distinct
meaning to a primary key. (It's the default foreign key reference
column(s) for the table --- and in that context it's clear that
There Can Be Only One.)

regards, tom lane

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