Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
The following flowchart shows the decision process a developer should follow to
decide which of the methods mentioned earlier should be used:
Dealing with Synthetic Keys - Flow Chart.
Getting back to our synthetic keys example shown earlier, let's see which of these
workarounds would best solve our problem. If we follow the flow chart, we can
arrive at the following conclusions:
• Yes, the tables should be associated with each other
• The unique key is formed by two fields
• The fields that constitute the unique key are
Year
and
Month
Therefore, we should use the third method and create a complex key using the
Month
and the
Year
fields. At the same time, we will need to remove the individual
fields from one of the tables.
