I’ve noticed that all posts bear both a post_id and a post_number. I understand that post_id is the unique identifier of the post in the entire forum, while post_number is the number of the post in its topic. Posts identify themselves as replies to other posts by referencing the post_number of anoth…

[image] Kevin_Wildenradt: TLDR; What purpose does post_number serve that could not be easily accomplished with post_id? This allows Why post_number? - #3 by Kevin_Wildenradt to continue to work efficiently even if Why post_number? - #2 by sam is deleted. And Why post_number? - #3 by Kevin_Wi…

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly Sam :smile: [image] sam: This allows Why post_number? - #3 by Kevin_Wildenradt to continue to work efficiently even if Why post_number? - #2 by sam is deleted. How would post_id not work for this scenario? It would seem that if 2 is deleted, the third…

@Mittineague I do not believe that post_number is ever updated, even in the event of post deletions. If it were updated then deleting a post would result in every link to every post after that post being broken. I have just deleted the post immediately before this, post_number 5. This was post_numb…

[image] Kevin_Wildenradt: How would post_id not work for this scenario? It would seem that if 2 is deleted, the third post would become the second post, but its post_number does not change accordingly and is now wrong. The post number is correct now, cause external links continue to work. If …

That makes sense, but why is reply_to_post_number used to identify which post a post is a reply to? If post_number only exists to make URL’s look prettier, why is it the identifier that replies depend on? Wouldn’t it be more consistent to make replies depend on post_id, a much more fundamental ident…

[image] Kevin_Wildenradt: why is it the identifier that replies depend on? Wouldn’t it be more consistent to make replies depend on post_id, a much more fundamental identifier? Yeah, this is a historic artefact we may get to cleaning it up at some point.

Why post_number?

Development

Mittineague (Mittineague) November 8, 2016, 1:56am 4

And if post 2 is later undeleted after post 3 takes its place, does it then become post 1 1/2 ?

Topic		Replies	Views
Post number on slider disagrees with post Support	10	1075	July 20, 2019
Whispered replies leak in the post number Support whispers	29	2127	January 26, 2021
From post number to post id Development rest-api	2	1515	July 21, 2021
Show post numbers Feature	10	1500	January 23, 2025
Jump to post does not reflect post deletions UX	9	1073	May 29, 2019

Why post_number?

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