Re: IS it a good practice to use SERIAL as Primary Key?

On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 10:23, Ron Johnson wrote:
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> On 11/22/06 20:23, carter ck wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I am wonderring if it is a good practice to use SERIAL index as primary
> > key, as it is only available up to 9999999?
> >
> > Currently i am dealing with storing LDAP users into Postgres and i am
> > looking for a better way to make use of the DN as primary key instead of
> > SERIAL index.
> >
> > Any advice or suggestion is appreciated.
>
> I'm one of those who thinks that a (possibly multisegment) natural
> key *does* exist, and that if you think it doesn't, your design is
> wrong.

Spend some time in the travel industry... The tax category ZO means
Passenger Service Chareg in Denmark. Or Greenland, or Faroe Islands.
And can be entered more than once. And the travel agent has to look at
the context of the travel itinerary to know which one(s) it is.

Sadly, the real world has many data problems created by idiots in suits
30 years ago that aren't going to go away any time soon.