Re: [mv] minivend/minimate partial update problem?

[Ed LaFrance <edlafrance@printexusa.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Ed LaFrance <edlafrance@printexusa.com>     ******

At 01:38 PM 5/4/00 -0400, you wrote:
>******    message to minivend-users from Lance Carito 
><lcarito@pathfinder.com>     ******
>
>
>Hello, I guess this question may be directed more for Mr. Heins, but
>perhaps there are others who can answer it:
>
>I have an SQL database table which doesn't have a primary key column,
>instead it has a column of non-unique keys, designed this way for
>various reasons. When I use minimate's partial update function to add
>new rows to the table, I run into problems when there are rows with
>identical keys. For instance, the update file could contain:
>
>key_code  sku
>800338    980006
>800338    980014
>
>But what's inserted into the database is only this:
>
>key_code   sku
>800338     980014

I think this is more in the realm of the science of databases than of any 
particular app (such as minivend or mySQL).  Any software that manages 
databases *MUST* have a method of uniquely identifying any given record in 
a file, if you think about it.  Otherwise, data management is not possible 
without eventually corrupting the database.  Modern DBMS, development 
environments, and applications which used databases extensively, are often 
aimed at being user-friendly, so they hide this requirement from the user 
by automatically generating a unique internal key for each record in a 
database (a good example of this approach is Filemaker Pro).

Minivend probably enforces this as a matter of protocol, even when 
interfacing with an auxiliary DBMS which may not require it.

- Ed L.
Printex Marking Technologies
12113 Kirkham Rd.
Poway, CA  92064  U.S.A.
858-513-2418
800-982-1928
858-513-2419 FAX
http://www.printexusa.com

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