Re: Seeking Database Design Guide -- MIDRANGE-L

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>Has anyone here used "surrogate keys" for their files?
>For example, we have a payroll master file containing 
>Employee#, Employee name
>we have a payroll transaction file containing
>Employee#, date, hours, rate of pay

I have used surrogate keys in files where there is no natural unique key.
For instance, a relatively free form  'notes and comments' file where the key
(comment number) was generated by the system and hidden from the user.  Then
the user can fill out and change 'key fields' (or not) without messing up the
file.
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