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) Novembre 8, 2016, 1:56 4

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

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Why post_number?

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