Re: Data type to use for primary key

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:54:56 -0800, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:
> Alexandre,
>
> > What is the common approach? Should I use directly the product_code as
> > my ID, or use a sequantial number for speed? (I did the same for the
> > company_id, this is a 'serial' and not the shor name of the customer.
> > I just don't know what is usually done.
>
> Don't use SERIAL just because it's there. Ideally, you *want* to use the
> product_code if you can. It's your natural key and a natural key is always
> superior to a surrogate key all other things being equal.
>
> Unfortunately, all other things are NOT equal. Here's the reasons why you'd
> use a surrogate key (i.e. SERIAL):
>
> 1) because the product code is a large text string (i.e. > 10bytes) and you
> will have many millions of records, so having it as an FK in other tables
> will add significantly to the footprint of the database;

Thanks for those tips. I'll print and keep them. So in my case, the
product_code being varchar(24) is:
4 bytes + string size (so possibly up to 24) = possible 28 bytes. I
did the good thing using a serial. For my shorter keys (4 bytes + up
to 6 char) I will use the natural key.

This is interesting, because this is what I did right now.

The "transparent surrogate keying" proposal that is discussed bellow
in the thread is a very good idea. It would be nice to see that. It
would be easier for the DB admin and the coder; the moment this is not
slowing the system. : )

Best regards.

--
Alexandre Leclerc