Re: numerical primary key vs alphanumerical primary key

[Julien Cigar <jcigar@xxxxxxxxx>]

The biggest difference in performance between text and integer keys is usually down to whether you're inserting in order or not. Inserting in order is tons faster regardless of the type, since it keeps the index unfragmented and doesn't cause page splits.

On 02/04/2013 22:52, Anne Rosset wrote:

Hi,

I have read a lot of different information about the benefits of using numerical primary key vs alphanumerical primary key(small size). And what I am gathering is that for performance there is no more great advantage.

It seems like now RDBMS in general, postgres in particular handles pretty well joins on text indexes.

Did I understand correctly?

Thanks,

Anne