[AccessD] OT: The Great Primary Debate

I was taking day one of a 4 day Programming SQL Server 2000 course today. 8
Oracle programmers moving to SQL Server, 6 of our Ingres programmers moving
to SQL Server.

Came to the section on Table Design. I said use an Identity value for the PK
on the table - all h%ll brooke loose for the next hour as the great debate
happened live in person. Pity JC wasnt there to back me up (<: Was split
between the younger developers who supported the use of the ID column and
the older developers and DBAs who use natural keys. Almost a 50//50 split on
age lines maybe reflecting different attitutes to design. Took me about
20mins with one of the older guys to explain how the relationship was
maintained using Idt IDs as opposed to his staff number. He seemed to have
real problems getting the concept.

Martin