[AccessD] Names or numbers?

Dear all

I am currently engaged in an argument with a contractor over the naming of
details in our database.

His argument is that since the actual names of the details will never be
exposed to the ordinary user, we should just give them numbers; X0000001,
X0000002 and so forth. X denotes the current phase of development, another
whacky idea of his. The 'friendly' names are held in a lookup table.

Personally, since I have to work with these details on a daily basis, I
would like the code to be a combination of categorisation, e.g. using the
1st two characters to describe the position / type of the detail, say XC for
claimant details and XD for defendant details and XA for admin details,
whilst using the other (up to 6) characters to describe the detail, say
XCDOB for claimant's date of birth.

The contractor's contention is that people will make up arbitrary &
meaningless character codes which will be confusing, whereas the numbered
details will be in a sensible sequence.

a) he is not proposing to leave any gaps in the sequence for later insertion
of related details
b) I don't see how a number is going to be less confusing than an alpha code
c) we can still use the lookup table with the alpha codes if needed

Has anyone got any thoughts on naming conventions? Any experience of fully
numeric naming systems that they can share? I have the authority to overrule
him but this is a really big project so I want to get it right, and he is
(theoretically) a lot more experienced than I am. He just hasn't come up
with any convincing arguments.

TIA

Roz
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