Composite primary key

Question

I am working on the design of a database that will be used to store data that originates from a number of different sources. The instances I am storing are assigned unique I

Answer 1

I believe that composite keys create a very natural and descriptive data model. My experience comes from Oracle and I don't think there is any technical issues when creating a composite PK. In fact anyone analysing the data dictionary would immediately understand something about the table. In your case it would be obvious that each source_id must have unique id_on_source.

The use of natural keys often creates a hot debate, but people whom I work with like natural keys from a good data model perspective.