What data type is recommended for ID columns?

Question

I realize this question is very likely to have been asked before, but I\'ve searched around a little among questions on StackOverflow, and I didn\'t really find an answer to

Answer 1

Popular databases allow for larger autoincrement fields for years now, so it's much less of an issue.

As for what to use, it's always a choice. One is not clearly better than the other, they have different characteristics and each is good in different scenarios. I have used both over time, and the next schema I work with I'll consider both.

Pros for GUID:

• Should be unique across computers.
• Random, unmemorable goo means people are likely to use this only for its intended purpose of an opaque identifier.

Pros for autoincrement:

• Human understandable.
• Sequential assignment means you can use a clustered index and impact performance.
• Suitable for data partitioning.