Should I use a huge composite primary key or just a unique id?

Posted by Jack on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Jack
Published on 2010-03-25T17:00:45Z Indexed on 2010/03/25 17:03 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 222

Filed under:

database-design

I have been trying to do web scraping of a particular site and storing the results in a database. My original assumptions about the data allowed a schema where I could use fairly reasonable composite primary keys (usually containing only 2 or 3 fields) but as time went on, I realized that my original assumptions about the data were wrong and my primary keys were not as unique as I thought they were, so I have slowly been expanding them to contain more and more fields. In fact, I have recently come to believe that their database has no constraints whatsoever.

Just today, I have finally expanded my a primary key for one of my tables to contain every field in that table and I thought now would be a good time to ask: is it better to add an auto-incrementing column that is just a unique id or just leave a composite primary key on the entire table?

Related posts about database-design

(Database Design - products attributes): What is better option for product attribute database design

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I new in database design. What is better option for product attribute database design for cms?(Please suggest other options also). option 1: 1 table products{ id product_name color price attribute_name1 attribute_value1 attribute_name2 attribute_value2 attribute_name3 attribute_value3 } option… >>> More
Book Review: Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation

as seen on SQL Blog - Search for 'SQL Blog'
Investing in proper database design is a very efficient way to cut maintenance costs. If we expect a system to last, we need to make sure it has a good solid foundation - high quality database design. Surely we can and sometimes do cut corners and save on database design to get things done faster… >>> More
Advice on database design / SQL for retrieving data with chronological order

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am creating a database that will help keep track of which employees have been on a certain training course. I would like to get some guidance on the best way to design the database. Specifically, each employee must attend the training course each year and my database needs to keep a history of… >>> More
Fiscal year handling strategies in database design

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
By fiscal year I mean all the data in the database (in all tables) that occurred in the particular year. Lets say that we are building an application that allows user to choose from different years. What way of implementing this would you prefer, and why: Separate fiscal year data based on multiple… >>> More
Database design for summarized data

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a new table I'm going to add to a bunch of other summarized data, basically to take some of the load off by calculating weekly avgs. My question is whether I would be better off with one model over the other. One model with days of the week as a column with an additional column for price… >>> More

Developer IT