Re: Primary Key of type string ?

Oriane wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> Just a basic question from a beginner in Oracle. Is is the "standard
> choice" to use a column of type "int" for the primary key ? I suppose
> that this is a performance issue ? What about choosing a type
> "string/char" for a primary key ?
>
> Sincerely
>
> Oriane

There is no such thing as a standard choice.

You appear to be thinking all primary keys are surrogate keys and, perhaps, every database is MS Access. Both assumptions being incorrect.

The choice of a key is ALWAYS based on the business rules. And most people prefer natural keys when they are available to avoid the introduction of duplicate rows.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org