> Model your data on the real world. Do not depend on spherical horses. Yes, and normalize it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization https://en.

> Model your data on the real world. Do not depend on spherical horses. Yes, and normalize it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization > Adding a synthetic key only means you have to track all three. Plus you have to generate a meaningless number, which is actually a choke point in your data throughput. This is true up to a point. You can add more data to the system to continue to generate natural, composite keys. However at some point you move from a database to an event stream, or you have to track events that aren't really needed for what your doing... Denormalization then takes precedence and a generated key makes sense again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denormalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denormalization > how will the surrogate key protect you? It isnt about protection, it's about not collecting the natural data to identify the event that caused the issue. Its denormalization by omission in effect.