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Re: Normalization, Natural Keys, Surrogate Keys

From: --CELKO-- <71062.1056_at_compuserve.com>
Date: 20 May 2002 14:59:15 -0700
Message-ID: <c0d87ec0.0205201359.120ca460@posting.google.com>


>> The SSN is a surrogate key itself, and a BAD one at that. There are
duplicates out there. <<

With Mexican illegals in Calfornia, Texas and other states, the duplication rate might be as high as 5%, according to the last figures I saw. But the problem is that people do not want to know if their workers are illegal.

>> It is "just as good" as a surrogate. In fact, it might be worse,
because at least I can QA my surrogate, but I can't QA the government's surrogate for Person. <<

Actually, there are several websites that will validate SSN for you and the US Government used to have a "Project Clean Data" where they would send you files of SSNs with the date and place of issue. You can check the data yourself and might even have gotten mailing from the Social Security Administration summarizing your account. Received on Mon May 20 2002 - 16:59:15 CDT

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