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Types of Keys in DBMS

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48 views5 pages

Types of Keys in DBMS

Document talks about Type of Keys

Uploaded by

kapilgoel.noida
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Types of Keys in DBMS (Database Management System)

There are mainly Eight different types of Keys in DBMS and each key has it’s
different functionality:

1. Super Key
2. Primary Key
3. Candidate Key
4. Alternate Key
5. Foreign Key
6. Compound Key
7. Composite Key
8. Surrogate Key

Let’s look at each of the keys in DBMS with example:

 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.
 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.
What is the Super key?
A superkey is a group of single or multiple keys which identifies rows in a table. A
Super key may have additional attributes that are not needed for unique
identification.

Example:

EmpSSN EmpNum Empname

9812345098 AB05 Shown

9876512345 AB06 Roslyn

199937890 AB07 James


In the above-given example, EmpSSN and EmpNum name are superkeys.

What is a Primary Key?


PRIMARY KEY in DBMS is a column or group of columns in a table that uniquely
identify every row in that table. The Primary Key can’t be a duplicate meaning the
same value can’t appear more than once in the table. A table cannot have more
than one primary key.
Rules for defining Primary key:
 Two rows can’t have the same primary key value
 It must for every row to have a primary key value.
 The primary key field cannot be null.
 The value in a primary key column can never be modified or updated if any
foreign key refers to that primary key.

Example:

In the following example, StudID is a Primary Key.


StudID Roll No First Name LastName Email

1 11 Tom Price [email protected]

2 12 Nick Wright [email protected]

3 13 Dana Natan [email protected]

What is the Alternate key?


ALTERNATE KEYS is a column or group of columns in a table that uniquely
identify every row in that table. A table can have multiple choices for a primary
key but only one can be set as the primary key. All the keys which are not primary
key are called an Alternate Key.
Example:

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.

StudID Roll No First Name LastName Email

1 11 Tom Price [email protected]

2 12 Nick Wright [email protected]

3 13 Dana Natan [email protected]

What is a Candidate Key?


CANDIDATE KEY in SQL is a set of attributes that uniquely identify tuples in a
table. Candidate Key is a super key with no repeated attributes. The Primary key
should be selected from the candidate keys. Every table must have at least a
single candidate key. A table can have multiple candidate keys but only a single
primary key.
Properties of Candidate key:

 It must contain unique values


 Candidate key in SQL may have multiple attributes
 Must not contain null values
 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.

StudID Roll No First Name LastName Email

1 11 Tom Price [email protected]

2 12 Nick Wright [email protected]

3 13 Dana Natan [email protected]

Candidate Key in
DBMS

What is the Foreign key?


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. It acts as a cross-reference between
two tables as it references the primary key of another table.
Example:

DeptCode DeptName

001 Science

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.

Teacher ID DeptCode Fname Lname

B002 002 David Warner

B017 002 Sara Joseph

B009 001 Mike Brunton

This concept is also known as Referential Integrity.

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