Re: Natural keys vs Aritficial Keys

paul c wrote:

> To most people, "natural" means "physical"

Really?! I can't possibly say you are wrong about that because I wouldn't know, but you do surprise me.

> and ends up being quite
> unnatural for some purposes.. When inventory or anything else "moves",
> sometimes "logical" locations are more convenient, allowing the
> replacement of one row to indicate the transfer or re-assignment of many
> "things".

That seems very implausible in the real world. That is a logical model in which if you move one thing, you must--infallibly--move all the other things that were there too. That is, it is a world in which it is impossible not to also move all the other things. Such situations do exist, I grant you, but they are the exception not the rule. But no one here (AFAIK) has ever said synthetic/surrogate keys are never useful.

-- 
Roy