> 
> 
>      Mr. Kaplan,
> 
>      I am starting to work on Oracle and recently got into a discussion
>      about indexing in Oracle and I have a question.
> 
>      Is it advisable to add an "artificial" column of unique sequential
>      numbers and make that a primary key when the table already has a
>      unique column of "real" data that could instead be the primary key?
> 
>      Thank you.
>      JH

It is advisable if you feel that the "real" data will ever have a chance
of changing. Primary keys should never be based upon columns that may have
the data updated. Aside from that, there is no advantage to using a sequential
number that I can think of.

Best of luck,


-Ari Kaplan
Independent Oracle DBA Consultant

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