Database Design Primay Key, ID vs String

Question

I am currently planning to develop a music streaming application. And i am wondering what would be better as a primary key in my tables on the server. An ID int or a Unique Stri

Answer 1

From the software perspective the GUID is better as its unique globally.

Quotes from: Primary Keys: IDs versus GUIDs

Using a GUID as a row identity value feels more natural-- and certainly more truly unique-- than a 32-bit integer. Database guru Joe Celko seems to agree. GUID primary keys are a natural fit for many development scenarios, such as replication, or when you need to generate primary keys outside the database. But it's still a question of balancing the tradeoffs between traditional 4-byte integer IDs and 16-byte GUIDs:

GUID Pros

• Unique across every table, every database, every server
• Allows easy merging of records from different databases
• Allows easy distribution of databases across multiple servers
• You can generate IDs anywhere, instead of having to roundtrip to the database
• Most replication scenarios require GUID columns anyway

GUID Cons

• It is a whopping 4 times larger than the traditional 4-byte index value; this can have serious performance and storage implications if you're not careful
• Cumbersome to debug where userid='{BAE7DF4-DDF-3RG-5TY3E3RF456AS10}'
• The generated GUIDs should be partially sequential for best performance (eg, newsequentialid() on SQL 2005) and to enable use of clustered indexes