Posted by eric.nave on 10/28/06 16:15

--CELKO-- wrote:
>
> The classic error of mixing display and data in the RDBMS?
>

This RDBMS is driving a content management system. The table in
question contains a list of URL links - basically a navigation element
for the website. So obviously, the CMS user has a requirement to put
the links in some arbitrary order that makes sense to them.

Imagine that this was the data that I wanted to have on this navigation
element:

http://google.com
http://apple.com

Pray tell how YOU would store those values so that the resulting HTML
page shows them in the order that the user wants?

> fact that you do not have a UNIQUE constraint on this silly column????

If you stop and think about this (but that seems to be a handicap for
you) you will realize that there can't be a UNIQUE constraint on the
sortorder column. If you honestly can't figure out why, ask nicely and
maybe I'll explain it to you.

But I really would love to hear how you would keep a list of links in
an arbitrary order

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