Surrogate means a stand-in, a substitute. Surrogate keys take the place of a natural key as the primary key within a database table. Ideally, surrogate keys stand in the shadows and are used in ...

A surrogate is, “One appointed to act in place of another.” A surrogate key is appointed to act in place of a natural key. Why? Well, one could argue that surrogate keys existed since the beginning of ...

Which makes for a better primary key: natural data points or meaningless values? Database developers have strong opinions on this facet of primary key design. This article settles the debate once and ...