Use of numeric pseudo-key vs. text key

Can anyone point me to some guidelines as to when you should use a pseudo-key like an autoincrementing number as the primary key of a table instead of a longer text value (which will also be unique).

My instinct is that use of the pseudo-key makes the database smaller (and perhaps faster) since less space is required for foreign key storage and less data must be compared for joins. It also allows changes to the associated text value without concerns about relationships, so I've gotten into a habit of doing this almost universally.

Comments? Received on Thu Mar 22 2001 - 11:10:18 CST