Describe two disadvantages of surrogate keys. Explain why they are disadvantages.

Surrogate keys has many advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages: Surrogate keys are fixed and are unique within the table they are located. When the row that the key is associated is deleted, the key is deleted automatically hence not causing redundant data. Surrogate keys are short as compared to other database keys.

Disadvantages: Surrogate keys have no meaning to the user when they are used as foreign keys. For the different rows in two databases that share data, there could be the same surrogate keys which could cause errors. For example two rows in two different databases could have the same ID when surrogate keys are used.