[OSM-dev] question about node identifiers

[John Smith]

--- On Sun, 23/8/09, Frank O'Dwyer <frank-osm at wordonthestreethq.com> wrote:

> Thanks - do you know is deletion and re-adding common? I
> assume that 
> would normally happen only in error or is there a use case
> for that?
> 
> I guess then I will have to use some heuristics to figure
> out if  two 
> different node ids near each other  represent the
> same  POI, when one 
> has been added and the other deleted from OSM.

If you parse change sets, you would get the node id to be deleted along with a new node id if there was something added, otherwise if it's just modified you get a modified change along with the original id.