Posted by Flaming Corncob on 08/18/06 20:52

In article <4kmaetFc7gcoU1@individual.net>,
"J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> wrote:

> Flaming Corncob wrote:
> > In article <4km59fFcpnbrU1@individual.net>,
> > "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Flaming Corncob wrote:
> >>> Ok, I just don't understand it.. what are the practical uses of indexes,
> >>> AUTO_INCREMENT etc.. how are they supposed to work?
> >> The sql server will take care of the increment of the value, without you
> >> need
> >> first check up whats the highest value, then add one to it and then insert
> >> the
> >> new data to the table. This can lead to that more than one will try to
> >> insert
> >> data with the same value, which leads to problems.
> >> With the auto increment, you don't need to insert the value when you
> >> insert
> >> data into your table, it will automatically be inserted and adjusted, and
> >> no
> >> risk for two to get the same value.
> >>
> >> This is useful when you want to give unique id-numbers for all rows in a
> >> table.
>
> > Sounds like what I already read.. just can't picture the practical use.
> > Maybe because it's not what I'm looking for?
>
> I don't know what you are looking for, but AUTO_INCREMENT is really useful
> for
> row id's, if you don't use any row identification, then it's not useful for
> you.
>
>
> //Aho

I'm in the process of coding a forum. What I was looking for was
something that keeps record of each folder/topic/subtopic/post, like an
index number that is unique for each. When something is moved, edited or
deleted it would make it easy to "refer" to a number and in the case for
example it is deleted anything under that referencing that number is
also deleted, and the number could be re-used. I thought indexes and
such was the way to go, but I can't seem to make heads or tails what's
going on.

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