Re: Records exactly the same. - Mailing list pgsql-sql

From Josh Berkus
Subject Re: Records exactly the same.
Date
Msg-id web-88701@davinci.ethosmedia.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Records exactly the same.  ("Fons Rave" <fonzzz@xs4all.nl>)
List pgsql-sql
Fons,

> I have a file in which there are records with what people have done.
> In the file
> are records with name, date, what they have done, time-length, etc.
> It is
> possible that there are two records that are exactly the same
> (somebody has done
> the same, on the same day for one hour). If I use a SELECT with GROUP
> on a list
> with some records that are exactly the same, only ONE of the
> identicals is
> shown. But I want to see them all.

Well, there isn't an easy answer for you ... because you've designed
your database wrong.  Records should *never* be the same.  That is, ni
fact, one of the cardinal rules of Relational Database Design.

You need to add an arbitrary primary key (e.g. act_key SERIAL NOT NULL
PRIMARY KEY) or some other piece of data (such as start_time) to make
each record unique.  Then, by including that unique data in your query,
you can insure that all records are displayed.

Frankly, I'm surprise that you're not getting errors when you try to
DELETE a record.   This usually happens in tables without a unique key.

It's been my argument for some time that PostgreSQL should require a
primary key on table creation.

-Josh


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