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ehuels
Starting Member
1 Post |
 Posted - 2006-09-27 : 11:24:29
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| I am working with an application developer on a DB design. Neither of us are expert DBA's, but each have significant experience working with DB's.In the table design, the app developer is insistent on creating "artificial" primary keys as numeric/identity to use as a record ID. The reason being is that the real PK is either a varchar datatype or complex key (two or more columns). He insists that by creating this key as numeric, he is improving the performance of the DB and application queries.In my opinion, creating the artificial key violates normalization rules, thereby threatening data integrity and increasing data maintenance and monitoring. Additionally, it seems to me the performance of the DB and speed of queries is going to be more dependent on having the proper indexes created than the datatype.I would like to get the opinion of a more expert and experienced community.Thank you. |
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harsh_athalye
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
5581 Posts |
Posted - 2006-09-27 : 11:43:44
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| Check out the following links:[url]http://www.bcarter.com/intsurr1.htm[/url][url]http://r937.com/20020620.html[/url]Harsh AthalyeIndia."Nothing is Impossible" |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2006-09-27 : 11:52:44
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| This is a very heated debate. There are going to be people who use an artificial key on every table, there are those who use the natural key as long as there is one, and those who do a mixture. Have him prove that the artifical key is faster with a simple test.Tara Kizer |
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Creating artificial PK