Foregin Key PostgreSQL, indexing?

i posted this but did not get a response.

i would like to add that i am using postgresql. if i use the primary key i can do look as below but can not do with another type of key. do i need to index these?

i also read this but it didn't lead to the solution. http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_thread/thread/eb70d8c45a6a3837/864be680bb9977e6?lnk

model user id (automatic primary) fname lname user_rrid (foreign key) - string "123456" model email id (automatic primary) e_addresss user_rrid (foreign key) - string "123456" e_type i would like to find a user by fname @user = User.find_by_fname("John") then use... @user.email.e_address @user.email.e_type i would also like to go the other way. search email based on e_address and find the user. can you please show how the user.rb and email.rb files should be set up. i have looked thru the docs and googled and everything i try does not work. i have tried using foreign_key but it does not work. thanks.

http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_thread/thread/eb70d8c45a6a3837/864be680bb9977e6?lnk=gst&q=foreign+key#

i posted this but did not get a response.

i would like to add that i am using postgresql. if i use the primary key i can do look as below but can not do with another type of key. do i need to index these?

i also read this but it didn't lead to the solution. http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_thread/thread/eb70d8c45a6a3837/864be680bb9977e6?lnk

model user id (automatic primary) fname lname user_rrid (foreign key) - string "123456" model email id (automatic primary) e_addresss user_rrid (foreign key) - string "123456" e_type i would like to find a user by fname @user = User.find_by_fname("John") then use... @user.email.e_address @user.email.e_type i would also like to go the other way. search email based on e_address and find the user. can you please show how the user.rb and email.rb files should be set up. i have looked thru the docs and googled and everything i try does not work. i have tried using foreign_key but it does not work. thanks.

> i posted this but did not get a response. > > i would like to add that i am using postgresql. if i use the primary > key i can do look as below but can not do with another type of key. > do i need to index these? > > i also read this but it didn't lead to the solution. > http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_thread/thread/eb70d8c45a6a3837/864be680bb9977e6?lnk > > > model user > id (automatic primary) > fname > lname > user_rrid (foreign key) - string "123456" > model email > id (automatic primary) > e_addresss > user_rrid (foreign key) - string "123456" > e_type > i would like to find a user by fname > @user = User.find_by_fname("John") > then use... > @user.email.e_address > @user.email.e_type > i would also like to go the other way. search email based on > e_address > and find the user. > can you please show how the user.rb and email.rb files should be set > up. i have looked thru the docs and googled and everything i try does > not work. > i have tried using foreign_key but it does not work. > thanks. ---- doesn't sound like a foreign key or index issue at all.

model user   has_one :email

  create_table "users", :force => true do |t|     t.column "fname", :string, :limit => 25     t.column "email_id", :string, :limit => 25, :null => false   end

model email   belongs_to :user

  create_table "emails", :force => true do |t|     t.column "e_address", :string, :limit => 32     t.column "e_type", :string, :limit => 25     t.column "user_id", :string, :limit => 25, :null => false   end

here is the problem i don't want to use the automatic primary key (email_id) or (user_id) i have created user_rrid and email_rrid to have a value of string

does this have to be changed to an integer?

can't you use this as a foreign key?

> ---- > doesn't sound like a foreign key or index issue at all. > > model user > has_one :email > > create_table "users", :force => true do |t| > t.column "fname", :string, :limit => 25 > t.column "email_id", :string, :limit => 25, :null => false > end

here is the problem i don't want to use the automatic primary key (email_id) or (user_id) i have created user_rrid and email_rrid to have a value of string

does this have to be changed to an integer?

It seems to me that you are confusing several distinct issues.

1. Primary Keys. As distributed, Rails only really works with surrogate integer keys, however there are plugins that accommodate so-called 'natural' primary keys. Surrogate key values are assigned by the DBMS via a sequencer. Primary keys are automatically given the additional attribute of an INDEX UNIQUE. By default, Rails defines primary keys to have the attribute name 'id' but you can override this in environment.rb or in the migration

2. Indexes are DBMS specific processes to speedily retrieve subsets of data. These can be defined in Rails migrations and are independent of keys. They can be defined as UNIQUE or not and a single index may span multiple columns. Indexes are not directly accessible via FIND, the DBMS planner decides whether or not a search by index makes sense.

3. Foreign Key lookups are constrained to the primary key of the reference table. Thus they must have (or be cast to) the same data type as the reference key. Rails does not employ DBMS foreign key constraints, rather ActiveRecord uses a FIND followed by an INSERT to enforce this requirement, a practice which can fail under high loads. By default, Rails considers a foreign key field to possess the pattern <tablename>_id but this can be modified in environment.rb or overridden in the model itself.

4. SQL FINDs require neither a key nor an index, only an attribute and a value. The DBMS planner decides on the basis of the schema and the statistical data it possesses how best to conduct the search and return the tuples. It is often the case that with small tables a planner will simply do a serial search of the entire table in memory rather than bother with the indices at all.

What I believe that you should do in this case is ignore INDEXES altogether until you have your design finalized and performance experience indicates that an INDEX on one of your FIND attributes might improve response time. The FIND will work with or without an index. However, if the issue is one of constraining the use of a particular fname to just one instance then an INDEX UNIQUE is really the only way to go. (If UNIQUEness is the goal then I have no idea why you would place such a restriction of fname alone, it seems to me that a composite key on lname+fname is a far better, albeit not very good, approach).

You should also just stick with the Rails defaults of integer valued surrogate keys. They work just fine in almost every case even if the concept may disturb some.

Your migrations should look something like this:

class CreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration   def self.up     create_table :users do |t|       t.string :fname, :null => false,                     :limit => 40       t.string :lname, :null => false,                     :limit => 40     end

    # Constrain fname in DBMS     add_index :users, :fname,               :name => :idxU_users_fname,               :unique => true   end

  def self.down     remove_index :userss, :name => :idxU_users_fname     drop_table :users   end end

class CreateEmail < ActiveRecord::Migration   def self.up     create_table :emails do |t|       t.string :e_address, :null => false       t.string :e_type, :null => false       t.integer :user_id, :null => false     end

  end

  def self.down     drop_table :emails   end end

The your models look something like this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :emails, :dependent => :destroy

  validates_presence_of :fname   validates_presence_of :lname

  # note that validates_uniqueness_of does not enforce   # but only checks uniqueness. It is possible to encounter   # a race condition where the entity name is taken between   # the check and the insert.   validates_uniqueness_of :fname

end

class Email < ActiveRecord::Base

  belongs_to :user

  validates_presence_of :e_address   validates_presence_of :e_type

end

Your FINDs belong in the appropriate controllers, either users_controller.rb or emails_controller.rb. There are also routes to consider as email is clearly a nested resource of users. What you end up with in a controller would look something like this:

...     @emails = @emails.find(:all, :conditions => [ :fname =?, @user.fname ]) ...

There are a number of Rails tutorials and screencasts on this. Take a look at railscasts.com and peepcode.com. Just bear in mind that with SQL, and therefore in Rails, you can always FIND on any attribute defined in a table not just those that are designated as being keys or indices.

HTH

Woops, rails does handle it correctly. The problem was you have to specify foreign key names in lower case or all things turn to custard.

Mark

In Rails (ActiveRecord), it's better to use integers as primary and
foreign keys. Rails doesn't seem to like things much if this isn't the
case.

Julian.

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