persid    date        rating
10000     1/1/2014    A
10000     1/2/2014    B
10001     1/1/2014    A
10001     1/2/2014    B
10002     1/1/2014    A
10002     1/2/2014    B
 .          .         .
 .          .         .
 .          .         .

setkey[tb1, persid]

tb1['10000']

Error in `[.data.table`(prhistory, "10000") : typeof x.persid (integer) != typeof i.persid (character)

setkey(tb1,persid)
tb1[J(10000)]
#    persid     date rating
# 1:  10000 1/1/2014      A
# 2:  10000 1/2/2014      B
tb1[persid==10000]
#    persid     date rating
# 1:  10000 1/1/2014      A
# 2:  10000 1/2/2014      B