surrogate keys (was: Seeking Database Design Guide)

Buck Calabro wrote:
> 
<snip>

> Has anyone here used "surrogate keys" for their files?
<more snipping>

> Now, given the same mistake, it's easy to simply swap the employee
> numbers because the surrogate keys are different for each employee.
> 
I take it that your transaction file or some daily totals files is
indexed by employee/date and do not allow for duplicates.  Surrogate
keys would not solve the issue since you would then have to have the
logic in the application to deal with multiple entries per
employee/date.  If it can do that then you can change the index to allow
for duplicates, retain the multiple logic and forget the surrogate.

JMHO

James W. Kilgore
qappdsn@ibm.net
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