Use item specific prefixes and autonumber for primary keys?

Question

We had a meeting this morning about how would should store our ID for some assets that we have in our database that we are making, the descusion generated a bit of heat so I

Answer 1

Well, I want to make some points and suggestions,

• Consider having a separate table for Type, say with the column Id and Desc, then make a foreign key TypeId in this table. One step further in order to normalize the thing. But it may not desirable. Do it if you think it serve some purpose

• Making it String does make sense, if later you folks think of shifting towards UUID. You don't need to change the data-type then

[Edited]

I agree with Cletus here. That surrogate key proved to be beneficial in some real life projects. They allow change, and you know well that, change is the only constant.