Hi Naomi,
>Would you please list all the advantages vs. disadvantages of GUID vs. Integer (in your opinion)?
Advantages:
GUIDs can be generated on the client without additional traffic to the server. Generating keys on the client avoids the need for translating primary keys when inserting data.
GUIDs can be used in replication and offline scenarios
GUIDs do not require a serialization of key generation requests and are therefore by definition scalable
GUIDs values are vastly distinct which distributes values over indexes
GUIDs discourage that developer from using the PK for anything but the PK
Disadvantages:
GUIDs values are vastly distinct which distributes values over indexes
GUIDs require more storage space (though not that much(
GUIDs require more I/O resources
For testing queries you have to copy and paste the key instead of reading and typing. You can't really write it on paper if you work with paper a lot.
--
Christof