• (cs) in reply to Alex Papadimoulis
    Alex Papadimoulis:

    That would really depend on the business requirements. Consider that, instead of creating a Customer Number for new customers, you use their Phone Number. What happens when they change phone numbers? You will have to create a new account for them, or they will use their old account with their old phone number.

    If you're a telphone services compnay, this really isn't an issue, since if they change phone numbers, they change accounts.



    Two comments here:

    I recently encountered a system where the developer chose an "obvious" natural key -- but the key basis can be changed without changing anything else about the (real life) object being modelled.  I recently got a new license plate for my car.  When I went to get my oil changed, the "mechanic" started asking me for all my contact information, which should have been in the computer already.  I quickly pulled off the windshield sticky and handed it to him, noticing that the "key" on the sticky was my (old) license plate number.  The sticky he gave to me at the end of the job still has my old plate number on it.  Luckily, that plate is was destroyed, and is not going to show up on another car.  Flip side -- in Michigan, we keep our old plates, and can put them on newly acquired cars, in lieu of getting  new plate.  So I might drive in with a new car, but the sytem would pull up data on the car that previously had that plate.  Still, I suppose it works correctly most of the time.  But for the rest of the time I have this car, I'll have to remember to give the mechanic the sticky so he can find my record in his database.

    My cell phone "account" has 4 phone numbers attached to it.  I think there is a separate account number, because it would be certainly possible for me to give up the "primary" phone, thus giving up its number.  But the other three phones would still be on the account.  And then the phone number would be reassigned to a new customer, and s/he would really not want to have to pay for my phone usage!

  • Maty (unregistered) in reply to uncool

    Never, unique key must be nonvisible,hidden inside tables and it must be a number - never string - to optimize database size

     

  • scriptor (unregistered) in reply to olddog

    Yes, MOST of the mail outs may have been returned by the postal service.
    My guess is that someone in the mail room compared the returned addresses against what was stored in the database and found that they all checked out as correct.

  • (cs) in reply to Eli
    Anonymous:
    JamesCurran:

    dpm:
    The first six are.  Why you think "court" and "avenue" are evaluated to be "street" is beyond me, though.

    Because the USPS officially ignores the suffix and considers all of them to be just "1 Forrest".  New streets must be unique within the town irrespective of the suffix.



    That's plainly not true. I assure you that 123 8th St and 123 8th Ave are two different locations in Manhatten

     

    And in Chicago, the entire south side of the city has streets with this pattern..

     

    South 35th Street

    South 35th Place

    South 36th Street

    South 36th Place

    etc..

    so in that case, it's even "worse" than Mahanttan's pattern where similiarly numbered streets are intersecting, in Chicago, they're parallel.

    That guy who said USPS disregards suffixes is a WTF.

  • (cs) in reply to VinceP1974
    VinceP1974:
    Anonymous:
    JamesCurran:

    dpm:
    The first six are.  Why you think "court" and "avenue" are evaluated to be "street" is beyond me, though.

    Because the USPS officially ignores the suffix and considers all of them to be just "1 Forrest".  New streets must be unique within the town irrespective of the suffix.



    That's plainly not true. I assure you that 123 8th St and 123 8th Ave are two different locations in Manhatten

     

    And in Chicago, the entire south side of the city has streets with this pattern..

     

    South 35th Street

    South 35th Place

    South 36th Street

    South 36th Place

    etc..

    so in that case, it's even "worse" than Mahanttan's pattern where similiarly numbered streets are intersecting, in Chicago, they're parallel.

    That guy who said USPS disregards suffixes is a WTF.

     

    God I feel dumb.. the pattern is

    either East or West xx Street/Place

     

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