> In the near future, I will be adding a fourth table of pre-existing data > and using a similar function to relate records to the ones I have. All of > this will have to go client-server at some point. Then I will have to make > sure that keys are generated properly as more records are added. Is there > any compelling reason why I should not continue to use these meaningful > keys? > > As Mr. Nedeljkovic would say, "Sorry for the sheet." The quoted sentence usually means the message is really worth reading, and this one is, indeed. I would just rephrase the final question: was there ever any good reason for not using meaningful keys? My practice was always to have digits keys (in a character field, left zeros padded) for lookup tables, but in the course of document data entry, the natural key was the document number (invoice number, or whatever), the way the user used to number documents. The main reason for this is that designing and implementing keys is a pain for the user too, but having the user convert to some other ways of assigning some numbers/codes to the documents is a double pain. So I (most of the time) make key fields long enough to accomodate any existing codes in user's use. Aside from that type of situation, if I had the liberty to design the keys as you feel proper - I'd probably do the same as you did. I simply feel it's the right way to do it.