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Keys in Rdbms With Examples

Keys play an important role in relational databases by uniquely identifying records. The primary key uniquely identifies each instance of an entity, while candidate keys can also uniquely identify records and foreign keys link tables by referencing the primary key of another table. There are different types of keys such as primary keys, candidate keys, super keys, and foreign keys.

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121 views

Keys in Rdbms With Examples

Keys play an important role in relational databases by uniquely identifying records. The primary key uniquely identifies each instance of an entity, while candidate keys can also uniquely identify records and foreign keys link tables by referencing the primary key of another table. There are different types of keys such as primary keys, candidate keys, super keys, and foreign keys.

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mother theressa
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Keys

o Keys play an important role in the relational database.


o It is used to uniquely identify any record or row of data from the table. It is
also used to establish and identify relationships between tables.

For example: In Student table, ID is used as a key because it is unique for each
student. In PERSON table, passport_number, license_number, SSN are keys since
they are unique for each person.

Types of key:
1. Primary key

o It is the first key which is used to identify one and only one instance of an
entity uniquely. An entity can contain multiple keys as we saw in PERSON
table. The key which is most suitable from those lists become a primary key.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, ID can be primary key since it is unique for each
employee. In the EMPLOYEE table, we can even select License_Number and
Passport_Number as primary key since they are also unique.
o For each entity, selection of the primary key is based on requirement and
developers.
2. Candidate key

o A candidate key is an attribute or set of an attribute which can uniquely


identify a tuple.
o The remaining attributes except for primary key are considered as a candidate
key. The candidate keys are as strong as the primary key.

For example: In the EMPLOYEE table, id is best suited for the primary key. Rest of
the attributes like SSN, Passport_Number, and License_Number, etc. are considered
as a candidate key.
3. Super Key
Super key is a set of an attribute which can uniquely identify a tuple. Super key is a
superset of a candidate key.

For example: In the above EMPLOYEE table, for(EMPLOEE_ID, EMPLOYEE_NAME) the


name of two employees can be the same, but their EMPLYEE_ID can't be the same.
Hence, this combination can also be a key.

The super key would be EMPLOYEE-ID, (EMPLOYEE_ID, EMPLOYEE-NAME), etc.

4. Foreign key

o Foreign keys are the column of the table which is used to point to the primary
key of another table.
o In a company, every employee works in a specific department, and employee
and department are two different entities. So we can't store the information of
the department in the employee table. That's why we link these two tables
through the primary key of one table.
o We add the primary key of the DEPARTMENT table, Department_Id as a new
attribute in the EMPLOYEE table.
o Now in the EMPLOYEE table, Department_Id is the foreign key, and both the
tables are related.

Generalization
o Generalization is like a bottom-up approach in which two or more entities of
lower level combine to form a higher level entity if they have some attributes
in common.
o In generalization, an entity of a higher level can also combine with the entities
of the lower level to form a further higher level entity.
o Generalization is more like subclass and superclass system, but the only
difference is the approach. Generalization uses the bottom-up approach.
o In generalization, entities are combined to form a more generalized entity, i.e.,
subclasses are combined to make a superclass.

For example, Faculty and Student entities can be generalized and create a higher
level entity Person.

Specialization
o Specialization is a top-down approach, and it is opposite to Generalization. In
specialization, one higher level entity can be broken down into two lower level
entities.
o Specialization is used to identify the subset of an entity set that shares some
distinguishing characteristics.
o Normally, the superclass is defined first, the subclass and its related attributes
are defined next, and relationship set are then added.

For example: In an Employee management system, EMPLOYEE entity can be


specialized as TESTER or DEVELOPER based on what role they play in the company.
Aggregation
In aggregation, the relation between two entities is treated as a single entity. In
aggregation, relationship with its corresponding entities is aggregated into a higher
level entity.

For example: Center entity offers the Course entity act as a single entity in the
relationship which is in a relationship with another entity visitor. In the real world, if a
visitor visits a coaching center then he will never enquiry about the Course only or
just about the Center instead he will ask the enquiry about both.
Reduction of ER diagram to Table
The database can be represented using the notations, and these notations can be
reduced to a collection of tables.

In the database, every entity set or relationship set can be represented in tabular
form.

The ER diagram is given below:


There are some points for converting the ER diagram to the table:

o Entity type becomes a table.

In the given ER diagram, LECTURE, STUDENT, SUBJECT and COURSE forms individual
tables.

o All single-valued attribute becomes a column for the table.

In the STUDENT entity, STUDENT_NAME and STUDENT_ID form the column of


STUDENT table. Similarly, COURSE_NAME and COURSE_ID form the column of
COURSE table and so on.

o A key attribute of the entity type represented by the primary key.

In the given ER diagram, COURSE_ID, STUDENT_ID, SUBJECT_ID, and LECTURE_ID are


the key attribute of the entity.
o The multivalued attribute is represented by a separate table.

In the student table, a hobby is a multivalued attribute. So it is not possible to


represent multiple values in a single column of STUDENT table. Hence we create a
table STUD_HOBBY with column name STUDENT_ID and HOBBY. Using both the
column, we create a composite key.

o Composite attribute represented by components.

In the given ER diagram, student address is a composite attribute. It contains CITY,


PIN, DOOR#, STREET, and STATE. In the STUDENT table, these attributes can merge
as an individual column.

o Derived attributes are not considered in the table.

In the STUDENT table, Age is the derived attribute. It can be calculated at any point
of time by calculating the difference between current date and Date of Birth.

Using these rules, you can convert the ER diagram to tables and columns and assign
the mapping between the tables. Table structure for the given ER diagram is as
below:
Figure: Table structure

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