DBMS Keys: Primary, Candidate,

Super, Alternate and Foreign (Example)

What are Keys?
A DBMS key is an attribute or set of an attribute which helps you to identify a
row(tuple) in a relation(table). They allow you to find the relation between two
tables. Keys help you uniquely identify a row in a table by a combination of one or
more columns in that table.

Example:

Employee ID FirstName LastName

11 Andrew Johnson

22 Tom Wood

33 Alex Hale

In the above-given example, employee ID is a primary key because it uniquely

identifies an employee record. In this table, no other employee can have the
same employee ID.

In this tutorial, you will learn:

 What are Keys?

 Why we need a Key?
 Various Keys in Database Management System
 What is Super key?
 What is Primary Key?
 What is Alternate key?
 What is Candidate Key?
 What is Foreign key?
 What is Compound key?
 What is Composite key?
 What is Surrogate Key?
 Difference Between Primary key & Foreign key

Why we need a Key?

Here, are reasons for using Keys 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 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.

Various Keys in Database Management System

DBMS has folwing seven types of Keys each have their different functionality:

 Super Key
 Primary Key
 Candidate Key
 Alternate Key
 Foreign Key
 Compound Key
 Composite Key
 Surrogate 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 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, <code>StudID</code> 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 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 may have multiple attributes
 Must not contain null values
 It should contain minimum fields to ensure uniqueness
 Uniquely identify each record in a table

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]

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 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.

What is the Compound key?

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. However, when combined with the other column or
columns the combination of composite keys become unique. The purpose of
compound key is to uniquely identify each record in the table.

Example:

OrderNo PorductID Product Name Quantity

B005 JAP102459 Mouse 5

B005 DKT321573 USB 10

B005 OMG446789 LCD Monitor 20

B004 DKT321573 USB 15

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.

What is the Composite key?

COMPOSITE KEY is a combination of two or more columns that uniquely identify
rows in a table. The combination of columns guarantees uniqueness, though
individually uniqueness is not guaranteed. Hence, they are combined to uniquely
identify records in a table.

The difference between compound and the composite key is that any part of the
compound key can be a foreign key, but the composite key may or maybe not a
part of the foreign key.
What is a 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. They do not lend any meaning to the data in the table.
Surrogate key is usually an integer.

Fname Lastname Start Time End Time

Anne Smith 09:00 18:00

Jack Francis 08:00 17:00

Anna McLean 11:00 20:00

Shown Willam 14:00 23:00

Above, given example, shown shift timings of the different employee. In this
example, a surrogate key is needed to uniquely identify each employee.

Surrogate keys are allowed when

 No property has the parameter of the primary key.

 In the table when the primary key is too big or complicated.

Difference Between Primary key & Foreign key

Primary Key Foreign Key

Helps you to uniquely identify a record in the It is a field in the table that is the primary key of
table. another table.

Primary Key never accept null values. A foreign key may accept multiple null values.

Primary key is a clustered index and data in A foreign key cannot automatically create an index,
the DBMS table are physically organized in clustered or non-clustered. However, you can
the sequence of the clustered index. manually create an index on the foreign key.

You can have the single Primary key in a You can have multiple foreign keys in a table.
table.

Summary
 A DBMS key is an attribute or set of an attribute which helps you to identify
a row(tuple) in a relation(table)
 DBMS keys allow you to establish a relationship between and identify the
relation between tables
 Seven Types of DBMS keys 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 keys 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.