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

> In the real world,
> data changes, even supposedly unchangeable data.

And that's the crux of it. All of the "that design is wrong" arguments in
the world won't stop data that has been constant & unique for decades from
changing when some manager, rightly or wrongly, sees a "business need" for
it. User-provided data can never, ever be counted on to forever and always
have the attributes (uniqueness, stability, whatever) described by the
users, no matter how many times you are reassured on the subject. The data
will very often behave exactly as described, but to base a database design
on that assumption is to create a brittle design--as you described.

--
Scott Ribe
scott_ribe(at)killerbytes(dot)com
http://www.killerbytes.com/
(303) 722-0567 voice