Re: how to retrieve records and make sure they arrive in RRN sequence

[rob@xxxxxxxxx]

James,

Quite bold of you on that:
<snip>
I would have (1) required that, at the very least, any 
database file created without an explicit primary key be automatically 
given an implicit one that would (whether a serial number...) make sure 
individual records are uniquely addressable,
</snip>
I don't have a problem with this.  I just didn't expect this from you. 
Bravo!

On high speed systems timestamps may not guarantee uniqueness.

The only problem with sequences is eventually they need to be reset.  In 
theory you could have
memo#:  10765
rrn:  9999
sequence:  9999

memo#:  10765
rrn:  10000
sequence:  0001
Then again, if sequence 1 already existed, would it bomb?

granted, the sequence is a lot more than four digits.  Just trying to make 
my point.  Even if you did enforce a default primary key the design might 
be better served by a specified primary key of memo# and memosequence# 
where each memosequence# starts with 1 for each new memo#.  Then again, 
screw the memo sequence# and just use a variable length character field 
for the memo.

Rob Berendt