Re: Normalization, Natural Keys, Surrogate Keys

>This is a common problem and a lot of people have got together to fix
>it. There are ISO standards for country codes. These codes are examples
>of a surrogate key maintained by a trusted third-party, just like the
>SSN.

> Using the ISO codes relieves the developer of the need to dream up new
>codes and ensures compatibility with other databases.

I've not seen many (any) trusted third-parties that provide good relational models for their standard codes. (e.g. include domain definitions, full temporal history of changes to codes, guarantees that the codes will be static for say at least the next 4 weeks, some method for automatically receiving updates, ...)

I mean, you even have to PAY for most of the ISO codes. Are they sure that's the best way to promote standardisation?!

Paul Vernon Received on Tue May 28 2002 - 22:13:37 CEST