Re: Postgres, DB design, and object IDs (of any ilk)

kentilton(at)gmail(dot)com (Kenneth Tilton) writes:
> Just looking for postgres "best practices" input from the veterans:

OIDs are decidedly a bad idea; the difference between "natural" IDs
and "surrogate" IDs is a general database issue that is fairly well
documented in the literature and is not notably a PostgreSQL-specific
issue.

There are competing doctrines, basically between the respective
beliefs:

a) Some believe that there should always be a natural primary key,
and that it is wrong to attempt to use surrogates

b) Others contend that even when users claim to provide natural
primary keys that they are actually lying when they suggest
certainty about this

Major bashing can take place back and forth.
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