Re: Setting a pre-existing index as a primary key

From: "Jonah H(dot) Harris" <jonah(dot)harris(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: "Joshua D(dot) Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com>
Cc: "Tom Lane" <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, "Bruce Momjian" <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Setting a pre-existing index as a primary key
Date: 2008-05-10 21:15:10
Message-ID: 36e682920805101415u669726c7o148d733a8d5d16e9@mail.gmail.com
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So, would anyone be averse to something like the following:

ALTER TABLE blah ADD ... PRIMARY KEY (...) USING PREBUILT INDEX index_hame

If the user doesn't specify CONSTRAINT constraint_name, it will
default to current implicit behavior of col_pkey.

-Jonah

On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 1:08 PM, Joshua D. Drake <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>
>> Apparently your definition of "easy" depends entirely on
>> keystrokes and not at all on memory/cognitive burden.
>
> I was trying to remove one opportunity for human error, which is tied to
> memory and cognitive burden. It is very easy to fat finger something. Is it
> a critical error? No. Is it obnoxious to have to go back and fix it, yes.
> When you are going back to fix, are you going to be grousing about how
> PostgreSQL doesn't make this easier, maybe.
>
>>
>> IMHO a utility command should do one easily-explained thing. The fewer
>> options the better.
>
> I would agree with this except that by my definition your argument fails.
> You are adding options by not allowing a sane default that applies
> consistency to the database. I believe this will cause more trouble than
> having the limitation in the first place.
>
> Anyway, I have made my arguments. I believe we are still in the middle of a
> commit fest.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Joshua D. Drake
>
>

--
Jonah H. Harris, Sr. Software Architect | phone: 732.331.1324
EnterpriseDB Corporation | fax: 732.331.1301
499 Thornall Street, 2nd Floor | jonah(dot)harris(at)enterprisedb(dot)com
Edison, NJ 08837 | http://www.enterprisedb.com/

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