Chris,
> I don't really care if people say it's bad to do this kind of thing,
> I like
> to tell them that I will do what works for me, and there is usually
> not much
> to argue about that point ;).
In most cases, simple surrogate keys (i.e. cust_id SERIAL) are the
easiest things to deal with. However, there are many cases where a
multi-column key can be superior.
Fabian Pascal has an excellent disussion of evaluating the suitability
of candidate keys in selecting a primary key in Practical Issues in
Database Design. It may also be on his web site
(http://www.firstsql.com/dbdebunk/).
(Candidate keys are unique combos of information in a table that could
be a primary key if you wanted)
-Josh
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