On Wed, 2010-04-21 at 15:18 -0400, Merlin Moncure wrote: > Natural keys: > *) force formal relationships into your key design (this is good) > *) Make your database MUCH easier to follow, browse, and understand > *) in particular cases allow you to skip joins > *) will make your indexes fatter (this is not good) > *) can be a pain if your keys are updated frequently > *) can be a major pain if your key changes in structure (adds a field, > or changes in type) > > Surrogate keys: > *) Give you faster joins, but more of them (this is a win/loss > depending on circumstances)
Kind of... natural keys can remove the need for the join in the first place, which is certainly faster than joining :P Joshua D. Drake -- PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 503.667.4564 Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
