Is it ok to use character values for primary keys?

Question

Is there a performance gain or best practice when it comes to using unique, numeric ID fields in a database table compared to using character-based ones?

For instanc

Answer 1

I recommend using ints or bigints for primary keys. Benefits include:

• This allows for faster joins.
• Having no semantic meaning in your primary key allows you to change the fields with semantic meaning without affecting relationships to other tables.

You can always have another column to hold team_code or something for "OAK" and "SD". Also