RE: How do you genrate primary keys?

SSAN are not reused by the government at least on purpose. Check it out below:

http://tinylink.com/?WCzYP7kRi2

However there are many other problems with SSANs. - Sometimes they are accidentally duplicated. Stuff happens when you issue 6 million a year.

• They are often fraudulently used. I did some work for the fraud and bad check department of a bank and saw a lot of it.
• As you said, only the good old USA uses them. What do you do when your company starts tracking employees overseas?
• The SSANs start with a leading zero(s) in the northeast. I've seen people store them as a number (they are call Social Security NUMBERS after all) and then wonder why the zeros are missing.

I agree they are bad primary keys. Of course I think any natural key is a bad primary key. ;-) In fact, you might even change your mind about Employee IDs once you merged systems where one company has been bought out by another. I've seen that get ugly.

Jerry Whittle
ASIFICS DBA
NCI Information Systems Inc.
jerome.whittle_at_scott.af.mil
618-622-4145

> -----Original Message-----
> From: TOMPKINS, MARGARET [SMTP:MARGARET.TOMPKINS_at_DFAS.MIL]
>
> Social security numbers are notoriously bad natural primary keys. Did you know that they are re-used? Yes, it's true. Generally, they don't get re-issued until after one of the users dies, but it's been a problem in the past and still is. What do you do with people who don't have SSNs? Foreign nationals and others that work for US companies oversees or provide goods/services generally do NOT have SSNs. An internal employee id would be a much better choice if a "natural" primary key is needed.
>
> Respectfully,
> > Maggie Tompkins - CAD SQA
> > Corporate Applications Division
> > Technology Services Organization - Kansas City
> > Defense Finance and Accounting Service
> > 816-926-1117 (DSN 465); Margaret.Tompkins_at_dfas.mil
>

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Author: Whittle Jerome Contr NCI
  INET: Jerome.Whittle_at_scott.af.mil

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