Oh yes. The full implications. I see it. I see it clear, your honour. The field he points to is changing over time. There are four years worth of data here and the value of the supposed primary-key has changed fifty times. These values he points to are reused from one record to the next. In order to make sense of any record at all I have to scan numerous other tables, try and make time flow backwards and thus predict which record has the given value at the given point in time. It's crap your honour. Cacca. Poo. It's good that a few people died as a result of my rage. It saves them from having to live in a world where basic relational-integrity can become so broken. They've been saved your honour.

Are you a happy programmer, sg?

Most days, your honour. This being not one of them. But most days.

(p.s. I'm reading a Stephen King book at the moment. And although I am a little stressed i am not actually a psychopath. Honest.)

'ej2' on Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:18:11 GMT, sez:

Sounds like a good one to submit to The Daily WTF!

'Joel Martinez' on Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:51:24 GMT, sez:

You poor soul ... I've had to deal with "magic keys" before. Not fun at all

'secretGeek' on Thu, 22 Jul 2004 01:57:04 GMT, sez:

Thanks for the support, Joel and Eddie!

I've fixed most of the badness now -- and i submitted the above to 'Daily WTF' as per Eddie's advice

cheers
lb

'Bill' on Sat, 31 Jul 2004 21:14:23 GMT, sez:

If I'm on the jury - you're a free man - and I'll buy you a beer afterward

'lewindha' on Tue, 23 Nov 2004 19:56:17 GMT, sez:

I'm dealing with the same thing right now. Any advice on how to cope when I go home at night and all I can see is this f'd up db with no easy way to retreive other than to totally restructure the db.

'secretGeek' on Fri, 26 Nov 2004 09:32:29 GMT, sez:

Hi Lewindha!

I hear you. it's tough isn't it?

You need to make a lot of improvements. That's crap. But don't let it overwhelm you. Just do one at a time.

And remember that a database never killed a developer yet. It has only made them smarter and stronger. (hey i like that -- gonna blog bout it now.)

'http://' on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:57:55 GMT, sez:

don't screw around

'Katster' on Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:26:01 GMT, sez:

I've wanted to do this very thing to people, but NEVER animals. Animals are innocent and love unconditionally.Someone in particular I'd love to strangle and watch them die slowly. What a pleasure.

'mystery girl' on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:57:29 GMT, sez:

i want to strangle boys when they make me so mad i am ready to kill

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