UDB : v8.2
OS : Solaris

How many columns can i have for a PK.
I am seeing 4 -5 columns as PK for few tables?
what is the impact of having these many columns as PK.

Will it have any effect while loading ,deleting data?

Any inputs are welcome

thanks

Any time you update/delete , you made changes to the indexes as part of
automatic index maintainence(done by db2), so more columns also more log
generation.


regards,

mujeeb

According to the manual (SQL Reference - Vol 1 - Appendix A - SQL Limits, 16 columns is the limit for an index (which is what a PK will be).

We have several tables that have 4-6 columns for the PK. The performance seems to be OK. The only drawback is doing joins to these tables and having to write the sql for all those columns.

Andy

thanks Mujeeb and AR Winner

The total length of the PK, and the order of the columns, is more important than the number of columns. If possible, put columns with higher cardinarlity up front, even if it does not seem as logical.

However, if any of the columns of the PK are changed, that could slow things down a bit, and in that case it is often advisable to use non-meaningfull keys.