Should I use multiple column primary keys or add a new colum?

Posted by Covar on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Covar
Published on 2011-02-07T18:34:58Z Indexed on 2011/02/07 23:34 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 262

Filed under:

My current database design makes use of a multiple column primary key to use existing data (that would be unique anyway) instead of creating an additional column assigning each entry an arbitrary key. I know that this is allowed, but was wondering if this is a practice that I might want to use cautiously and possibly avoid (much like goto in C).

So what are some of the disadvantages I might see in this approach or reasons I might want a single column key?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about database-design