If it lacks a single column primary key, some databases, like oracle, make it harder to do an outter join.

Could you back up this assertion? I've never heard this and I work with an Oracle9i database that has no primary keys whatsoever. (Long story ... I have no control over it.) If this were true, I and the DBA could take it to our VP as reason #2348769 as to why the application developers shouldn't have control over the schema.

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

In reply to Re^2: OT: benefits of database normalization by dragonchild
in thread OT: benefits of database normalization by revdiablo

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