与自动递增的数字相比,电子邮件地址是一个糟糕的初选候选人吗?

我们的web应用程序需要电子邮件地址在系统中是唯一的。所以,我想到使用电子邮件地址为主键。然而,我的同事认为字符串比较将比整数比较慢。

这是一个有效的理由不使用电子邮件为主键吗?

我们使用的是PostgreSQL。


当前回答

您可能需要考虑任何适用的数据法规。电子邮件是个人信息,例如,如果你的用户是欧盟公民,那么根据GDPR,他们可以指示你从你的记录中删除他们的信息(记住,无论你在哪个国家,这都适用)。

如果出于参考完整性或审计等历史原因,需要将记录本身保存在数据库中,则使用代理键将允许您将所有个人数据字段设置为NULL。如果他们的个人数据是主键,这显然不那么容易

其他回答

就我个人而言,我在设计数据库时不使用任何信息作为主键,因为我很可能在以后需要更改任何信息。我提供主键的唯一原因是,它方便从客户端执行大多数SQL操作,我的选择一直是自动增加整数类型。

使用电子邮件地址作为主键的缺点:

Slower when doing joins. Any other record with a posted foreign key now has a larger value, taking up more disk space. (Given the cost of disk space today, this is probably a trivial issue, except to the extent that the record now takes longer to read. See #1.) An email address could change, which forces all records using this as a foreign key to be updated. As email address don't change all that often, the performance problem is probably minor. The bigger problem is that you have to make sure to provide for it. If you have to write the code, this is more work and introduces the possibility of bugs. If your database engine supports "on update cascade", it's a minor issue.

使用电邮地址作主键的优点:

You may be able to completely eliminate some joins. If all you need from the "master record" is the email address, then with an abstract integer key you would have to do a join to retrieve it. If the key is the email address, then you already have it and the join is unnecessary. Whether this helps you any depends on how often this situation comes up. When you are doing ad hoc queries, it's easy for a human being to see what master record is being referenced. This can be a big help when trying to track down data problems. You almost certainly will need an index on the email address anyway, so making it the primary key eliminates one index, thus improving the performance of inserts as they now have only one index to update instead of two.

在我看来,这两种情况都不是十拿九稳的。当有实用的键时,我倾向于使用自然键,因为它们更容易使用,而且在大多数情况下,缺点并不太重要。

您可能需要考虑任何适用的数据法规。电子邮件是个人信息,例如,如果你的用户是欧盟公民,那么根据GDPR,他们可以指示你从你的记录中删除他们的信息(记住,无论你在哪个国家,这都适用)。

如果出于参考完整性或审计等历史原因,需要将记录本身保存在数据库中,则使用代理键将允许您将所有个人数据字段设置为NULL。如果他们的个人数据是主键,这显然不那么容易

字符串比较比int比较慢。但是,如果您只是使用电子邮件地址从数据库检索用户,那么这并不重要。如果您有多个连接的复杂查询,那么这很重要。

如果在多个表中存储有关用户的信息,则用户表的外键将是电子邮件地址。这意味着您将多次存储电子邮件地址。

Email是一个很好的唯一索引候选,但不是主键,如果它是一个主键,例如,你将无法更改联系人的电子邮件地址。 我认为你的连接查询也会变慢。