Keys in DBMS

Dr. Anand Bihari

SJT Annex- 203N
[email protected]
What are Keys?
A DBMS key is an attribute or set of an attribute which
helps us to identify a row(tuple) in a relation(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.
They allow us to find the relation between two tables.
Keys help us to uniquely identify a row in a table by a
combination of one or more columns in that table.
Help you to enforce identity and integrity in the
relationship.
Keys in Database Management
System
DBMS has following 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
Super key
 A Super key 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
 Super Keys are 199937890 AB07 James
 {EmpSSN}
 {EmpNum}
 {EmpSSN, EmpNum}
 {EmpSSN, Empname}
 {EmpNum, Empname}
 {EmpSSN, EmpNum, Empname}
Primary Key
A column or group of columns in a table which helps us
to uniquely identifies every row in table is called a
primary key.
The same value can't appear more than once in the table
for primary key column.
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.
Candidate Key
 The candidate keys in a table are defined as the set of keys
that is minimal and can uniquely identify any data row in
the table.
 The Primary key should be selected from the candidate
keys.
 Every table must have at least one candidate 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
Super key vs Candidate Key
All the candidate keys are super keys.
This is because the candidate keys are chosen out of
the super keys.
How we choose candidate keys from the set of super
keys?
The keys from which cannot remove any fields. In the
first example, we have not chosen {Emp_SSN,
Emp_Name} as candidate key because {Emp_SSN}
alone can identify a unique row in the table and
Emp_Name is redundant.
Alternate key
All the keys which are not primary key are called an
alternate key.
It is a candidate key which is currently not the primary
key.
However, A table may have single or multiple choices
for the primary key.
Foreign key
A foreign key is an attribute value in a table that acts
as the primary key in another table.
Hence, the foreign key is useful in linking together two
tables.
Data should be entered in the foreign key column with
great care, as wrongly entered data can invalidate the
relationship between the two tables.
Compound key
Compound key is the set of key attributes that allows
us to uniquely recognize a specific record.
It is possible that each column may be not unique by
itself within the database.
 However, when combined with the other column or
columns the combination of composite keys become
unique.
Composite key
A key which has multiple attributes to uniquely
identify rows in a table is called a composite key.
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.
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
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.