Primary Keys

Pros of GUID

• [1] You can generate IDs client side or anywhere else
• [1] Unique across every table, database and server
• [1] Allows easy distribution of databases across multiple servers
• They can contain extra information, such as the creation timestamp.

Cons of GUID

• [1] Being 16 bytes in size, it’s 4x larger than a 4 byte autoincrement ID.
• [1] Cumbersome to debug where userid='{BAE7DF4-DDF-3RG-5TY3E3RF456AS10}'
• [4] Very inefficient to index
• [4] Not all languages and environments directly support GUIDs (but most of them do)

References

• [1] https://blog.codinghorror.com/primary-keys-ids-versus-guids/
• https://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly/25862
• https://krow.livejournal.com/497839.html
• [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20150511162734/http://databases.aspfaq.com/database/what-should-i-choose-for-my-primary-key.html
• https://brandur.org/nanoglyphs/026-ids
• https://tomharrisonjr.com/uuid-or-guid-as-primary-keys-be-careful-7b2aa3dcb439
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Database/comments/rrsz09/uuid_or_integer_id/