On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Ron Johnson &lt;<a href="mailto:ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com">ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">On Tue, Feb 4, 2025 at 9:41 AM David G. Johnston &lt;<a href="mailto:david.g.johnston@gmail.com" target="_blank">david.g.johnston@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:</div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Rich Shepard &lt;<a href="mailto:rshepard@appl-ecosys.com" target="_blank">rshepard@appl-ecosys.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Should lookup tables have a numeric FK column as well as the description column?<br>
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If so, how should I add an FK to the two lookup tables in my database?<br>
</blockquote><div><br></div><div>Most do (have a surrogate PK) since it removes cascading updates</div></blockquote><div> </div></div><div>How does a synthetic PK &quot;remove cascading updates&quot;?  Doesn&#39;t the decision on whether or not to cascade update depend on the ON UPDATE CASCADE clause of the FK definition?</div><div><br></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>People don’t change synthetic PKs so updates never have to happen on the FK side.  Labels do get changed, in which case you have to update the FK label side.</div><div><br></div><div>David J.</div><div> </div>