Re: Is the use of VARCHAR(256) as Primary Keys preferred in Oracle?

From: Pablo Sanchez <pablo_at_dev.null>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 20:45:27 GMT
Message-ID: <Xns92CA8BF2D52E1pingottpingottbah@209.242.64.107>

"Paul Brewer" <paul_at_paul.brewers.org.uk> wrote in news:3dd94d32_3_at_mk-nntp- 1.news.uk.worldonline.com:

> Just a moment guys:
>
> The SSN isn't a natural key; it's just *someone else's surrogate key*. And
> if they lack even the competence to make their own surrogate key unique,
> that's a different issue.

Hey Paul!

What's interesting is one does a web search on ssn's, you'll see a lot of hits on sites that say something to the effect: the ssn has worked well for us for X years, but due to security concerns, etc etc etc

One person's natural key is another's ... oh never mind! :)

later!

-- 
Pablo Sanchez, High-Performance Database Engineering
http://www.hpdbe.com

Received on Mon Nov 18 2002 - 14:45:27 CST