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From: "Kostas" <noemail@noemail.net>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory
Subject: Re: A second qs on multivalued dependencies.
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 16:31:01 -0400
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Xref: dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu comp.databases.theory:26907

> 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.