Hi all, in my database I've got a table with a key that is char string, since it was supposed to support values like strings. Running the database, the users decided to place numbers as strings, so values like 00110002 and so on. Now I was wondering to refactor my database and change the char field into a numeric one but here comes problems: the field is referenced by other tables and views. I guess there's not, but you'll never know until you try: is there a tool or a way to easily do such refactoring or should I write a program on my own to do this? And moreover a database design question: is a better idea to choose always (when possible) numeric keys? I'm thinking about the database portability, since not all databases support sequences (that can be used with a concat to provide an automatic string key). Thanks, Luca
