Re: Test database for new installs?

Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> writes:

> > - Usage of varchar for key column
>
> And? Varchar is somehow implicitly inferior for keys?

Yes, it's larger and larger is slower. It's also failure prone when pushed
through various levels of applications prone to uppercasing or misparsing
whitespace. It's also prone to failure in internationalized applications and
applications dealing with multiple character sets.

> Watch it ... you're about to hit one of my "abuses of SQL" pet-peeves, the
> overuse on INT surrogate keys ...

Oh yeah, and it's also a sign you're failing to use surrogate keys and using
something meaningful in the real world as your primary key and therefore
vulnerable to major problems when the real world fails your assumptions about
uniqueness or immutability.

--
greg