Question

I have an audit table and instead of defining an identity or ticketed column, I’m considering just pushing in the records of the recorded table (via triggers).

Can a SQL Server 2000 table have no PK, and therefore contain duplicate records?

If yes, does all I have to do consist of CREATING the TABLE without defining any constraint on it?

Answer 1

Yes a SQL Server 2000 table can have no primary key and contain duplicate records and yes you can simply Create a table without defining any constraint on it. However I would not suggest this.

Instead, since you are creating an audit table for another table. Lets say for this example you have a Person Table and a Person Audit table that tracks changes in the person Table.

Create your Audit Table like this

CREATE TABLE dbo.PersonAuditID
(
  PersonAuditID int NOT NULL IDENTITY (1, 1),
  PersonId int NOT NULL,
  FirstName nvarchar(50) NOT NULL,
  LastName nvarchar(50) NOT NULL,
  PersonWhoMadeTheChange nvarchar(100) NOT NULL,
  TimeOfChange datetime NOT NULL,
  ChangeAction int NOT NULL,
  /* any other fields here*/
  CONSTRAINT [PK_PersonAudit] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED 
  (
[PersonAuditID] ASC
  )
)  ON [PRIMARY]

This will give you a primary key, and keep records unique to the table. It also provides the ability to track who made the change, when the change was made, and if the change was an insert, update or delete.

Your triggers would look like the following

CREATE TRIGGER Insert_PERSON
   ON  PERSON
   AFTER INSERT
AS 
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    INSERT INTO PERSONAUDIT
    (PersonID, 
     FirstName, 
     LastName, 
     PersonWhoMadeTheChange, 
     TimeOfChange, 
     ChangeAction,
     ... other fields here
     SELECT 
       PersonID,
       FirstName,
       LastName,
       User(),
       getDate(),
       1,
       ... other fields here
     FROM INSERTED

END

CREATE TRIGGER Update_PERSON
   ON  PERSON
   AFTER UPDATE
AS 
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    INSERT INTO PERSONAUDIT
    (PersonID, 
     FirstName, 
     LastName, 
     PersonWhoMadeTheChange, 
     TimeOfChange, 
     ChangeAction,
     ... other fields here
     SELECT 
       PersonID,
       FirstName,
       LastName,
       User(),
       getDate(),
       2,
       ... other fields here
     FROM INSERTED

END

CREATE TRIGGER Delete_PERSON
   ON  PERSON
   AFTER DELETE
AS 
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    INSERT INTO PERSONAUDIT
    (PersonID, 
     FirstName, 
     LastName, 
     PersonWhoMadeTheChange, 
     TimeOfChange, 
     ChangeAction,
     ... other fields here
     SELECT 
       PersonID,
       FirstName,
       LastName,
       User(),
       getDate(),
       3,
       ... other fields here
     FROM DELETED

END