Hi Larry,

On Tue, 2006-09-19 at 20:51 -0700, Larry wrote:
> For almost every project where we used natural primary keys, I've
> needed to later add some utility to allow the user to alter them.  This
> code needs to look accross every table that reference this primary key
> and alter it there.  Running it without concurrency problems is
> difficult and so dealing with the entire issue is just extra work and a
> headache.  It also introduces another user interface element that I
> have to train to users (key changes must be done in single user mode
> using this special key change menu item, blah-blah-blah).  So a while
> back, I switched to never using natural primary keys.  I've also heard
> that integers are more efficient but it's not the reason I use them.

My reply to Bayle was intended to be didactic, not to argue for one
approach or the other, which is why I prefaced it with "Many database
professionals" (plus, this is not the right forum).  Personally, I tend
to deal with them on a case-by-case basis, but I'm definitely not in the
"religiously using surrogates" camp.  OTOH, I know a guy that thinks
sequential keys are almost sacrilegious :-)

Joe


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