Re: Timestamps

["David Morris" <dmorris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric,

I agree completely that timestamps are unlikely to work for anything other 
than an audit trail.  In the case described, where the timestamp is retrieved 
in a trigger, I would even question that you could guarantee the order.  How 
do you omit a field and have it set on an update?  I have found that only 
works on a write.  

An 8 byte unsigned update sequence is likely to be adequate because you can 
start at 1 and don't have to skip like a timestamp.  A UUID addresses another 
issue that I don't think exists in the case described. 

David Morris

>>> doulos1@home.com 11/22/00 08:32AM >>>
Hello,

Using the API is a bit of overkill in most situations. Doing the Time
opcode into a timestamp field gives you everything but the last 3
digits of the timestamp... Which I believe to be the same result as
the API.

Using a logical file with the time stamp omitted is the only way I
know of to actually get the last three digits of the timestamp...

Even if a person were able to get the last three digits of a timestamp
there will come a day when more than one record will be able to be
added in that interval (Trust me it will especially if you rely on a
timestamp to be your unique key). There has been discussion on the
validity of using timestamps and methods of retrieving them recently
and should be accessible via the search facilities.

A approach that may be more viable is to use a UUID as has also been
discussed recently. The value is not pretty to the eyes, but unique
keys should not have any embedded meaning (other than to uniquely
identify a record) in my opinion.

Wednesday, November 22, 2000, 12:43:38 AM, you wrote:

----------------------------------
Eric N. Wilson
President
Doulos Software and Computer Services


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