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RE: How do you genrate primary keys?

From: DENNIS WILLIAMS <DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 07:59:33 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.005D5D7A.20031106075933@fatcity.com>


Bambi - Actually, the government is moving to enforcement of the use of SSAN for miscellaneous purposes. We've had to quit sending SSAN to health insurance companies. I believe this is the new HIPPA law. Just another reason to not use SSAN as a primary key.

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 11:35 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Having worked for the government in a situation where we were actually tracking information BY Social Security Number, let me tell you the problems with it.

  1. Social Security Numbers ARE NOT GUARANTEED TO BE UNIQUE
  2. Individuals ARE NOT GUARANTEED TO HAVE ONE AND ONLY ONE Social Security Number
  3. Not all Social Security Numbers are numeric
  4. Not all Social Security Numbers which ARE numeric are 9 characters in length
  5. Social Security Numbers can be changed by the holder
  6. It is illegal to use the Social Security Number for any purpose other than that which the government specifically uses Social Security Numbers for (ie., the distribution of benefits). I'll bet *that* one is strictly enforced.

HTH,
Bambi.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 8:00 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Tom,

I think using a natural key such as Soc. Sec. # as the primary key is a good idea. You don't need to maintain the sequence so there's no performance issue
associated with sequences. There's no issue of gaps. No index root block contention. It doesn't seem to be industry common practice though.

In your college student case, changing primary keys is rare so it's not a big
problem.

Yong Huang


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Received on Thu Nov 06 2003 - 09:59:33 CST

Original text of this message

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