Why We Need A Key
Why We Need A Key
Here are some reasons for using sql key in the DBMS system.
Keys help you to identify any row of data in a table. In a real-world application, a table could contain thousands of records. Moreover, the
records could be duplicated. Keys in RDBMS ensure that you can uniquely identify a table record despite these challenges.
Allows you to establish a relationship between and identify the relation between tables
Help you to enforce identity and integrity in the relationship.
1. Super Key
2. Primary Key
3. Candidate Key
4. Alternate Key
5. Foreign Key
6. Compound Key
7. Composite Key
8. Surrogate Key
Super Key – A super key is a group of single or multiple keys which identifies rows in a table.
Primary Key – is a column or group of columns in a table that uniquely identify every row in that table.
Candidate Key – is a set of attributes that uniquely identify tuples in a table. Candidate Key is a super key with no repeated attributes.
Alternate Key – is a column or group of columns in a table that uniquely identify every row in that table.
Foreign Key – is a column that creates a relationship between two tables. The purpose of Foreign keys is to maintain data integrity and
allow navigation between two different instances of an entity.
Compound Key – has two or more attributes that allow you to uniquely recognize a specific record. It is possible that each column may
not be unique by itself within the database.
Composite Key – is a combination of two or more columns that uniquely identify rows in a table. The combination of columns guarantees
uniqueness, though individual uniqueness is not guaranteed.
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Surrogate Key – An artificial key which aims to uniquely identify each record is called a surrogate key. These kind of key are unique
because they are created when you don’t have any natural primary key.
Example:
Example:
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StudI Roll First LastNam Email
D No Name e
1 11 Tom Price [email protected]
2 12 Nick Wright [email protected]
3 13 Dana Natan [email protected]
In this table, StudID, Roll No, Email are qualified to become a primary key. But since StudID is the primary key, Roll No, Email becomes the
alternative key.
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It should contain minimum fields to ensure uniqueness
Uniquely identify each record in a table
Candidate key Example: In the given table Stud ID, Roll No, and email are candidate keys which help us to uniquely identify the student record in
the table.
DeptCode DeptName
001 Science
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002 English
005 Computer
Teacher ID Fname Lname
B002 David Warner
B017 Sara Joseph
B009 Mike Brunton
In this key in dbms example, we have two table, teach and department in a school. However, there is no way to see which search work in which
department.
In this table, adding the foreign key in Deptcode to the Teacher name, we can create a relationship between the two tables.
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B002 OMG446789 Laser Printer 3
In this example, OrderNo and ProductID can’t be a primary key as it does not uniquely identify a record. However, a compound key of Order ID
and Product ID could be used as it uniquely identified each record.
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Difference Between Primary key & Foreign key
Following is the main difference between primary key and foreign key:
Summary
What is key in DBMS: A key in DBMS is an attribute or set of attributes which helps you to identify a row(tuple) in a relation(table)
Keys in RDBMS allow you to establish a relationship between and identify the relation between tables
Eight types of key in DBMS are Super, Primary, Candidate, Alternate, Foreign, Compound, Composite, and Surrogate Key.
A super key is a group of single or multiple keys which identifies rows in a table.
A column or group of columns in a table which helps us to uniquely identifies every row in that table is called a primary key
All the different keys in DBMS which are not primary key are called an alternate key
A super key with no repeated attribute is called candidate key
A compound key is a key which has many fields which allow you to uniquely recognize a specific record
A key which has multiple attributes to uniquely identify rows in a table is called a composite key
An artificial key which aims to uniquely identify each record is called a surrogate key
Primary Key never accept null values while a foreign key may accept multiple null values.