> Having said that, I prefer a natural key if three conditions can be met:
>
> 1. I can trust the assigning authority, and I some form of contract, or
> at
> least a "meeting of the minds" that says that the assignors recognize
> their
> responsibility not to break my system.
>
> 2. I don't need to use a surrogate key to make a data warehouse survive
> the
> reorganization of the enterprise it supports.
>
> 3. I don't need a surrogate key to track the history of the attributes of
> the natural key.
>
> If a surrogate key buys me something with regard to the above, I'll use
> it.
> If not, I'll use the natural key.
Fair enough! Thanks.
Received on Fri Oct 15 2004 - 15:31:01 CDT
