In my previous post “Why GUID primary keys are a database’s worst nightmare” I spoke about some of downsides to using GUID primary keys. In this post I’m going to focus more specifically on the .NET Framework’s implementation of System.Guid. I have a few complaints about this class, let’s cover them… 1. Guid.ToByteArray() This, IMHO, [...]

 

When you ask most people why using a GUID column for a primary key in a database might be slower than auto-incremented number the answer your likely to get is usually along these lines: “Guids are 16 bytes, and integers are only 4 bytes.” While this information is technically accurate, it is completely the wrong [...]