Auto Increment Surrogate Key

metadata1 · Post by **metadata1** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:02 am

Hi - I am new to DW/DataStage 8 and I found this forum as a great knowledge tool and a quick resource to learn, connect and help others - Hopefully soon I will be in a position to help others myself -

My question is why can't we use DB auto increment function on the key column to create a surrogate key for a dimension table - May be when loading up the dimension table omit/Null the key column mapping and let the DB create the PK for us - I am sure there is a good obvious answer for that but I was a bit confused.

Thanks!!!

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 8:18 am

Welcome. You can, and as you noted typically by omitting the column. What database? What have you tried and what specific issues have you seen?