Tuesday, August 23 2011

As I see this topic recurring again, I wanted to humbly offer up the old entry To GUID or not to GUID In Your Databases.

Consider that simple joins are continually held as one of the primary weakpoints of many web scale implementations. Add the complexity of joining GUIDs (not even considering the lower data density, slower inserts, etc). It can be brutal.

This is one of those topics that is often incorrectly classified as premature optimization. It isn't. Your data structures will often live longer than any other element of your project. That is simple truth, demonstrated by millions of projects across millions of organizations.

   

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About the Author
Dennis Forbes Dennis Forbes is a Toronto-based software architect. While focused primarily on the .NET and SQL Server worlds, Dennis frequently ventures outside of this comfort zone into game development and image processing. He has been published in several industry magazines, has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and has been interviewed by NPR.

He is a vice president and lead software architect at an innovative New York City hedge fund back-office services firm.

Dennis has been working on solutions for the financial, telecommunications, and power generation markets for over 15 years.





 

Dennis Forbes