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Asked: 2026-05-13T16:00:16+00:00

I’m trying to figure out the best practices for deciding whether or not to

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I’m trying to figure out the “best practices” for deciding whether or not to add an auto-incrementing integer as the primary key to a table.

Let’s say I have a table containing data about the chemical elements. The atomic number of each element is unique and will never change. So rather than using an auto-incrementing integer for each column, it would probably make more sense to just use the atomic number, correct?

Would the same be true if I had a table of books? Should I use the ISBN or an auto-incrementing integer for the primary key? Or a table of employees containing each person’s SSN?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There are a lot of already addressed questions on Stack Overflow that can help you with your questions. See here, here, here and here.

    The term you should be looking for: surrogated keys.

    Hope it helps.

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