Should I design a table with a primary key of varchar or int?

Question

I know this is subjective, but I\'d like to know peoples opinions and hopefully some best practices that I can apply when designing sql server table structures.

I pe

Answer 1

If Joe Celko was on here, he would have some harsh words... ;-)

I want to point out that INTs as a hard and fast rule aren't always appropriate. Say you have a vehicle table with all types of cars trucks, etc. Now say you had a VehicleType table. If you wanted to get all trucks you might do this (with an INT identity seed):

SELECT V.Make, V.Model
FROM Vehicle as V
INNER JOIN VehicleType as VT
ON V.VehicleTypeID = VT.VehicleTypeID
WHERE VT.VehicleTypeName = 'Truck'

Now, with a Varchar PK on VehicleType:

SELECT Make, Model
FROM Vehicle 
WHERE VehicleTypeName = 'Truck'

The code is a little cleaner and you avoid a join. Perhaps the join isn't the end of the world, but if you only have one tool in your toolbox, you're missing some opportunities for performance gains and cleaner schemas.

Just a thought. :-)