> > i think ive read it somewhere, a rule of thumb is if you dont need to do > calculations with your "number", make it a string > In 2006 where I was working they created a new SQL DB and the natural key of the most important table was a 12 digit number (customer number I think) and there were arguments about if the PK should be a string or a number. For some reason they chose a DECIMAL(12,0) which vaguely worried me, but I didn't get involved and I still wonder if a 64-bit integer would have been better, or even a CHAR(12) ... still dunno.
*GK*
