It is connected to BI and merging of data from different data sources and would make that process more smooth.
And is there an optimal migration strategy from a database without Guids to a version with Guids without information losses?
Sql-server – Is Guid the best identity datatype for Databases
database-designguidreplicationsql-server
Related Question
- Sql – How to return only the Date from a SQL Server DateTime datatype
- Sql – Insert results of a stored procedure into a temporary table
- .net – the string length of a GUID
- Sql-server – the best way to auto-generate INSERT statements for a SQL Server table
- Is storing a delimited list in a database column really that bad
- Sql-server – SELECT INTO a table variable in T-SQL
- Sql-server – What are the best practices for using a GUID as a primary key, specifically regarding performance
Best Solution
Keep in mind that GUID's (or 'unique_identifier') for PK's is a bad choice, as many PK's have a clustered index (so all rows are stored on disk in the indexed order). As GUID's are random, it's not certain a new row will be appended at the end of the index, but could be inserted in the middle of the index. This causes disk trashing as the rows have to be moved.
IF you consider guid's, at least use sqlserver 2005 or up and NEWSEQUENTIALID() for the PK value, to get sequential guid's which are always bigger than the last one, so are always appended at the end of the index. If you're not using sqlserver (but for example postgresql or you're using oracle and use CHAR(32) or other type), consider COMB's (see: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=25862 )