db design quest

Hi, I'm looking for adivice/oppions about a db design issue. I'm using Oracle 8.0.5.

With regard to referece type tables, is it better to store relationships based upon an integer or is it ok to use a varchar as the primary key.

My philposiphy has been to use an integer for all inter table relationships. But its a pain when it comes to refernce type tables. I've keept with the paradigm but I'm reviewing my methodology for a new project.

example:

Assume there's a reference table credit_card_type (id int , code varchar2(4) , descp varchar2(30)) with PK id and values such as:

    1, AMEX, AMERICAN EXPRESS
    2,VISA, VISA
    3,MC, MASTER CARD

And a refrenceing table foo(....credit_card_type_id int...) with a constraint that credit_card_type_id refrences credit_card_type(id).

Is this better than this using the code as the foreing key:

credit_card_type (code varchar2(4) , descp varchar2(30)) with PK code and

    AMEX, AMERICAN EXPRESS
    VISA, VISA
    MC, MASTER CARD foo(....credit_card_type int...) with a constraint that credit_card_type refrences credit_card_type(code).

...Ed Received on Tue Jun 01 1999 - 06:44:44 CDT