Re: pervasiveness of surrogate (also called synthetic) keys - Mailing list pgsql-general

On 4/28/2011 12:29 PM, Jim Irrer wrote:
> A colleague of mine insists that using surrogate keys is the
> common practice by an overwhelming margin in relational databases and
> that they are used in 99 percent of large installations.  I agree that many
> situations benefit from them, but are they really as pervasive
> as he claims?
>
> Thanks,
>
> - Jim

I dont see how you could know unless you went to all the "large
installations" and asked.  But since its a good idea, and you "should"
do it that way, and because I'm pessimistic, I'd say only 5% of RDB
users do it that way.

Oh!  Joke:  Why do DB Admins make better lovers?  They use surrogates!

Anyway, I'm not a large install, but I use em.  That's gotta count for
something.

Really, how could you count?  Was there a poll someplace?  Ask for some
data.  Otherwise seems like BS to me.

-Andy